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Compare 10+ Leading Pet Insurers In Minutes
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If your pet suffers an injury or illness, vet bills can unexpectedly run into the thousands of dollars. Pet insurance is a way to protect against the financial shock of a pet that needs expensive medical treatment.
While pet insurance plans have a common foundation of basic coverage, such as injuries and hereditary conditions, there are differences in benefits, prices and extras. We evaluated 13 plans to find the best pet insurance plans.
Compare 10+ Leading Pet Insurers In Minutes
$5,000 or Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%
$50, $100, $200, $250, $500, $1,000
With its superior benefits across the board and excellent pricing, Pets Best earned our top spot.
$3,000, $5,000, $7,000, $10,000
70%, 80%, 90%
$100, $250, $500
You probably know ASPCA from its work to prevent animal cruelty. It also offers a great pet insurance plan, with top-notch benefits at a very competitive price. Note that this is the same plan and pricing offered by Spot, but with different choices for annual limits and deductibles.
$5,000, $8,000, $10,000, $15,000, $30,000
70%, 80%, 90%
$200, $300, $500, $750, $1,000
Embrace’s ample coverage benefits and very competitive pricing boosted it to a high score.
$10,000 or Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%, 100%
$100, $250, $500, $1,000
Prudent Pet provides a solid range of benefits at a good price.
$2,500, $4,000, $5,000, $7,000, $10,000, Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%
$100, $250, $500, $750, $1,000
Spot offers excellent pet insurance benefits at a very competitive price. Note that this is the same plan and pricing offered by ASPCA but with different choices for annual limits and deductibles.
$4,000, $8,000, $15,000, Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%, 100%
$0, $100, $250, $500, $750
TrustedPals scored well thanks to its superior pricing and quality coverage, including a top-notch range of choices for coverage limits and reimbursement.
$5,000, $10,000, Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%, 100%
$100, $250, $500, $750
Figo provides good pet insurance benefits at a superior price.
$5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000
70%, 80%, 90%
$100, $250, $500
Lemonade is a solid choice for pet owners who want a great price for good benefits.
Unlimited
50%, 70%, 90%
$250
Nationwide’s Whole Pet with Wellness provides a complete plan with accident and illness insurance plus routine care.
$2,500, $7,500, $15,000
70%, 80%, 90%
$100, $250, $500
Toto is a solid choice for good pet benefits at a competitive price.
Unlimited
90%
$0 to $1,000 in $5 increments
Trupanion’s unique lifetime per-condition deductible means you’ll pay a deductible once for every new condition, without a reset every year. But with high prices and unremarkable benefits, the plan gets beat out by competitors.
Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90% for pets age 5 and under, with declining reimbursement choices as the pet gets older
$100, $250, $500 for pets age 5 and older, with rising deductible levels as the pet gets older
Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90% for pets age 5 and under, with declining reimbursement choices as the pet gets older
$100, $250, $500 for pets age 5 and older, with rising deductible levels as the pet gets older
Healthy Paws is the only pet insurance company that has reduced coverage options when you sign up an older pet, so be aware of this if your pet is over age 5.
$5,000, $15,000, Unlimited
70%, 80%, 90%
$250, $300, $500
Petplan’s benefits and prices are topped by other competitors.
Company | Company - Logo | Forbes Advisor Rating | Forbes Advisor Rating | Price description | Benefits description | Learn More CTA text | Learn more CTA below text | LEARN MORE |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pets Best | 5.0 | Excellent | Excellent | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
ASPCA | 4.0 | Very good | Very good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Embrace | 4.0 | Excellent | Very Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Prudent Pet | 4.0 | Good | Very good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Spot | 4.0 | Very good | Excellent | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
TrustedPals | 4.0 | Excellent | Very Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Figo | 3.0 | Excellent | Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Lemonade | 3.0 | Excellent | Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Nationwide | 3.0 | Excellent | Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Toto | 3.0 | Very good | Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Trupanion | 1.5 | Very good | Good | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Healthy Paws | 1 | Good | Poor | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO | ||
Petplan | 1 | Poor | OK | Compare Plans | Via PetInsurer.com's Secure Website | https://petinsurance.advisor.forbes.com/quote/?source=ForbesAdvisorSEO |
Pet insurance is a health insurance policy for your pet that pays for medical expenses and sometimes other costs. Pet insurance plans are typically reimbursement-based, meaning you pay up-front for the pet’s vet bills and submit a claim to the insurance company.
There’s usually a deductible to pay before coverage starts. For example, you might pay the first $500 in vet bills before the pet insurance starts to pay.
Even after your deductible, the pet insurance may not pay 100% of vet bills. You can typically choose your reimbursement level. Common reimbursement options are 70%, 80% or 90% of your vet bills.
What’s covered by pet insurance will depend on the type of plan you buy. Pet insurance plans are generally available in three varieties:
Accident and illness plans generally cover cancer, hereditary conditions and congenital conditions, rehabilitation and more. Accident-only plans cover only accident-related problems, like a broken bone.
You can add a routine wellness plan to many pet insurance policies. This will offset the cost of the annual vet wellness visit, vaccinations, heartworm treatment and other routine care costs that help keep your pet healthy.
Pet insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions, meaning conditions your pet had before the policy went into effect, including any waiting period.
Related: What does pet insurance cover?
Pet insurance plans can be hard to compare in an apples-to-apples way. Coverage, exclusions and pricing variation make it hard to calculate the potential value of each plan. Here’s how to find the best pet insurance for you.
Do you want a pet insurance that goes the extra mile every time, or do you want to hold down costs with an accident-only plan that won’t pay anything for pet illnesses? Or something in between?
Comprehensive pet insurance plans that cover a wide range of health-related problems plus wellness are typically the most expensive, but it might be worth considering if you want complete coverage.
Pet insurance can generally be broken down into these plan types:
When you purchase a pet insurance policy, you’ll select a deductible and reimbursement level. The deductible is the amount of money you’ll pay out of pocket every year to your veterinarian before your pet insurance coverage kicks in. Trupanion, however, offers a unique lifetime per-condition deductible: You’ll pay a deductible once for every new condition, without a reset every year.
Choosing a higher deductible will lower your monthly pet insurance bill.
Once your deductible is met, you can submit vet bills to your pet insurance company for reimbursement. You’ll choose a reimbursement level when you buy the plan, and the lower your reimbursement level, the less you’ll pay in pet insurance premiums.
You’ll also often have a choice of an annual “maximum payout level.” This is the cap on how much the pet insurance plan will pay. Many pet insurance plans offer choices between $5,000 and an unlimited payout. Of course, choosing an unlimited payout will raise the premium price.
Pet insurance discounts are a good way to save. Here are some common discounts:
The type of pet is just one factor in the cost of pet insurance. For example, cats are generally cheaper to insure than dogs, and birds, ferrets, rabbits and reptiles are cheaper to insure than cats.
Here are some common factors that determine your pet insurance cost:
In 2020, the average cost for accident and illness coverage was $594 per year for a dog and $342 per year for a cat, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. The average cost for accident-only coverage was $218 per year for a dog and $134 per year for a cat.
Your costs will depend on several factors, including your type of pet, the age of your pet, the coverage options you select and where you live.
Related: How Much Does Pet Insurance Cost?
The best way to find a policy within your budget is to compare pet insurance quotes among several different insurers.
You can find free pet insurance quotes:
Vet medical bills for injuries and illnesses can be very costly, and pet insurance can be a good way to cover some of these costs.
For example, if your dog ruptured their ACL, surgery could cost thousands of dollars. Let’s suppose the total cost for surgery is $3,000 and you have coverage with a $500 deductible and 90% reimbursement level. In this scenario, your out-of-pocket cost would be $750 ($500 deductible + 10% of $2,500 = $750).
Pet insurance is worth careful consideration. Some pet owners prefer to set aside money in a savings account for a pet’s medical needs. But if you can’t afford a surprise vet bill that could be thousands of dollars, pet insurance is a way to guard against racking up a credit card bill or finding another way to pay.
Nearly three-quarters of pet owners currently do not have pet insurance despite a high awareness of its availability, according to a national survey of 1,000 adults by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Unfortunately, 63% of pet owners say they wouldn’t be able to afford unexpected medical care for their pet.
Pet insurance can be an affordable solution for unexpected veterinary bills. For example, an accident and illness pet insurance plan pays for medical expenses for accidental injuries like a broken bone or treatment if the pet has a skin condition.
“We often hear how surprised people are when they see their vet bill after an accident, illness or even a wellness appointment, but these costs could be greatly reduced with pet insurance,” says Luke Bills, a spokesperson for Liberty Mutual.
We used data provided by PetInsurer.com to score each pet insurance company based on the following.
Price: 30% of score. We averaged pet insurance quotes for each insurer for a mixed-breed dog at three ages in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas and Washington.
Plan benefits: 70% of score. We emphasized coverage benefits to find the best insurance plans because buying a cheap plan that lacks good benefits ultimately won’t pay off. We scored a wide range of plan features that a pet owner would likely appreciate, including a choice of reimbursement levels and deductible options, waiting periods, availability of a 24/7 pet health line, availability of routine wellness coverage, whether the vet can be paid directly, coverage for vet exam fees, dental coverage, behavioral and alternative therapy coverage, stem cell treatment coverage, reimbursement for end-of-life expenses such as euthanasia, and multipet discounts.
While we placed value on a rich selection of benefits, you might decide that an accident-only plan or other slimmed-down plan is the best pet insurance for what you need.
If you have a pet insurance plan, you’ll generally have a deductible amount that you pay for veterinarian bills before coverage starts. After that, you’ll still pay your vet directly and then submit your bills to the pet insurer for reimbursement. The insurance company will send you reimbursement until it has paid the maximum your plan allows in a year, such as $5,000. Some plans offer unlimited payout maximums.
Nationwide also offers a major medical plan for pets, which covers illness and accidents using a defined annual maximum payment for each individual condition or service.
As with any insurance, you’ll want to weigh the cost of the insurance over time against potential payouts. But pet insurance doesn’t have to break the bank, like human health insurance does. For example, for a pet insurance plan with a $5,000 maximum yearly payout for a Chihuahua puppy, we saw prices as low as $21 a month from Lemonade and Pets Best.
Note that the pet insurance price you pay when your pet is a puppy or kitten will generally increase each year when you renew the policy.
A pre-existing condition is an injury or illness that started prior to your pet insurance coverage or during the waiting period. When you apply for pet insurance, the insurer might require a medical exam or medical records before enrolling your pet.
Some plans, such as ASPCA’s pet insurance, do not require a veterinary exam or medical records for enrollment. But injuries or illnesses that precede your enrollment date won’t be covered. For example, if your dog busted a paw after tumbling down the stairs in March and you enrolled in April, medical costs related to the injury won’t be covered.
You can get pet insurance for some pre-existing conditions. Some insurers will cover curable pre-existing conditions, such as an ear infection. For example, ASPCA’s pet plan will cover curable pre-existing conditions if there are no symptoms for 180 days (excluding knee and ligament problems). If the condition recurs after 180 days, it will be covered as a new problem.
Pet insurance is not tax deductible.
If you are visually impaired, hearing disabled or have other physical disabilities, you may be able to deduct medical expenses, including the costs of buying, training and maintaining a guide dog or service animal, according to IRS publication 502. This generally includes costs such as food, grooming and veterinary care.
Pet insurance is not limited only to cats and dogs. Some insurers sell pet insurance for birds and exotic pets like water dragons, turtles, potbellied pigs, rabbits, frogs and hedgehogs.
For example, Nationwide offers an avian and exotic pet health insurance plan. This plan covers eligible pets for problems like upper respiratory infections, eye infections, arthritis and internal parasites.
Not all exotic pets are covered. For example, Nationwide’s plan won’t cover venomous species, endangered or threatened species, hybrids of domestic pets, species that are kept in flocks or on display, or any species that is illegal to own by state or federal law.
Jason Metz is a writer who has worked in the insurance industry since 2007. As a former claims handler and fraud investigator, he’s seen a lot, and enjoys helping others navigate the complexities and opaqueness of insurance. He has a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Kutztown University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside, Palm Desert.