We carry insurance on our dog - lesson learned after she was hit by a truck. A lot of $$ later and we now have insurance. Costs us @ $40 / month and I'd have to say we have got our money's woth over the last 6 years. Nice thing about having pet insurance is that decisions on treatment for your pet are based on the best interests of the pet NOT the finances.
Daughter, who was a Vet Assistant for years has insurance on their 2 cats and one dog. With one cat, the medical treatment probably was @ $10,000 over 6 months, they only had to pay @ $1,000 of that.
And no, just because I'm Canadian doesn't mean we have nationalized pet insurance.