I also have to comment on "vet care is just NOT that expensive." You are really lucky (and I am jealous!) if vet care is not expensive in NC, but in CA it is very expensive. I pay $35 a month per dog for insurance. If I had simply saved that amount for my first yorkie in an account at 5% (not sure where I would even find that rate), it still would have taken me about 15 years to save the amount of the vet bill. (yes, I did spend that much money on emergency care
)
Now I have three dogs, so I definitely feel insurance is worthwhile based on my own experience.