That health care costs are rising needs no debate. But that is not only true for healthcare costs for people – it also extends to our pets. And while rising costs are the unfortunate dark side of healthcare, the upshot is that these have largely been driven by dramatic advances in technology and treatment for both people and pets.
But those advances have made insurance more necessary and desirable than ever. For that reason, we prepared this guide, listing what we believe to be the seven best pet insurance companies of 2024.
Table of Contents
Before we get into a deep dive, the comparison table below provides a quick overview of the seven best pet insurance companies of 2024 with their most basic features:
Our Picks for Best Pet Insurance Companies
In surveying the dozens of companies now offering pet insurance, we’ve narrowed the list down to what we believe to be the seven best providers in the space:
- Figo Pet: Best for Full Reimbursements
- Embrace: Best Dental Coverage
- TrustedPals: Best for Older Pets
- Nationwide: Best for Exotic Pets
- Healthy Paws: Best for Quick Reimbursements
- Pets Best: Best for Direct Payments
- Fetch: Best for Comprehensive Coverage
Best Pet Insurance Company Reviews
Below are summaries of the pet insurance plans offered by each of the seven best pet insurance companies of 2024. You can click the link at the end of the summary to access our full review of the company and the coverage it offers.
Figo claims to be the first cloud-based pet insurance company in the industry. But what makes the company stand out from the competition is one of its three plans – Ultimate – which offers virtually unlimited veterinarian coverage each year. Naturally, you’ll pay more in premiums for that plan.
But they also offer their Essential and Preferred plans, with lower maximum benefits of $5,000 and $10,000. Each plan features lower premiums than the Ultimate plan.
The all-online platform enables you to upload veterinary bills, followed by an electronic payment. Payments are typically processed in under three business days. You can take your pet to any licensed vet in the world because Figo reimburses you, not the provider.
See our Figo Pet Insurance Review
Embrace Pet Insurance offers dental insurance covering treatments for up to $1,000 for each policy year. In addition, they’ll pay fees for visits related to illness or injury (but not wellness).
Embrace also offers a diminishing deductible provision. Each year your pet is in the plan, with no claim reimbursement, the amount of the deductible is reduced by $50. The deductible can even go all the way to zero.
You can purchase a Wellness Rewards plan that will provide $250, $450, or $650 per year in reimbursement. There are no per-incident limits on claims, nor is there a lifetime limit on your pet’s coverage. However, you should be aware that policies are available only for pets ages 14 and younger.
See our Embrace Pet Insurance Review
TrustedPals gets our vote for the best provider for older pets. That’s because there is no age limit for either dogs or cats. Most pet insurance companies set a maximum age, which is commonly 14. It’s also worth noting this company does have a plan that offers 100% reimbursement.
Claims are processed within 10 days of submission, which is about the middle of the range for all insurance companies. But the company does offer premium discounts for active-duty members of the military, veterans, first responders, and those in several other professions.
A wellness plan is available that will cover up to $750 for routine visits and care.
See our TrustedPals Pet Insurance Review
Nationwide Pet Insurance provides health insurance coverage for dogs and cats, but they’re one of the very few companies offering coverage for exotic pets. They claim to be the largest pet insurance company, ensuring over 1 million pets nationwide.
And of course, one of the major advantages of Nationwide is that it’s a major insurance company. That means you can purchase multiple policies with the same company. They even offer a 5% discount for purchasing a new pet policy.
Nationwide works by reimbursement. You can choose either a percentage of each invoice or a set benefits schedule.
See our Nationwide Pet Insurance review
Healthy Paws has what might be the fastest reimbursement times in the industry. Those claims are processed and paid within two days of submission. Healthy Paws also has no caps or maximum limits on coverage, either annually or based on your pet’s lifetime.
You should be aware that Healthy Paws doesn’t require your pet to submit to a “full, nose-to-tail physical exam” by a licensed veterinarian to be eligible for coverage. Additionally, no diagnostic testing, like X-rays or blood work is required.
Pets Best gets our vote for the best pet insurance company paying directly to veterinarians and other providers. While you do have the option to make payments and receive reimbursement from the company, you can also opt to have payment sent directly to your provider. That can streamline the process, eliminating the need to make payments out of your own resources.
We also like that Pets Best coverage extends to veterinarians throughout the US, as well as Canada.
Pets Best offers simple terms, with a choice of deductibles ranging from $50 to one thousand, and just two maximum benefit levels of either $5,000 or unlimited.
Petplan has changed its name to Fetch by the Dodo. But it offers what may be the most comprehensive plan of any pet insurance company. That’s because they include exam fees and dental coverage with every policy. In addition, they also provide coverage for breed-specific conditions. This may be important for those who have a particular breed at home that is prone to sickness.
They advertise average monthly premiums of $35 for dogs and $25 for cats. If that’s remotely accurate, it means Petplan is on the lower end of the pet insurance cost scale. The company also claims that bills will be reimbursed in as little as two days, through direct deposit into your bank account.
Pet Insurance Guide
What Does Pet Insurance Cover?
Pet insurance policies typically cover both accidents and illness, though there are policies for accidents only that are less expensive. Accidents will include injuries, poisonings, sprains, and ACL ruptures. Illnesses will include the common variety, like ear infections and diarrhea, as well as chronic conditions, like allergies and arthritis. They’ll also cover serious illnesses, like diabetes and cancer.
You can generally expect insurance policies to cover diagnostic tests, including X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, and blood tests. Many policies also extend to hereditary conditions, such as hyperthyroidism, and blood disorders. A few even cover holistic and alternative therapies, like acupuncture and chiropractic through extended wellness coverage.
However, most policies exclude wellness care. That includes routine visits to the vet, annual checkups, vaccinations, and flea and heartworm preventive care. Most pet insurance companies will offer you a wellness package at an additional cost.
You can read more about specific illnesses, accidents, and treatments pet insurance typically includes by checking out our dedicated post, What Does Pet Insurance Cover?
Types of Pet Insurance Plans
There are three basic types of pet insurance plans: Comprehensive Care, accidents-only, and wellness coverage. Each one covers different areas related to your pet’s health, and you may typically have the option to customize your plan in order to fit your needs.
Comprehensive Care
This is the full version of pet insurance, often referred to as an accident and illness policy, because it extends to both illness and accidents. As you might expect, it is also the most expensive, premium-wise. But if you can afford it, this is definitely the coverage level to choose. It’ll cover your pet during just about any kind of medical condition, as well as treatment for accidents, and common illness.
Medical events covered by comprehensive include:
- Both accidents and illness
- Treatment for common illnesses
- Surgery
- Hospitalization
- Emergency care
- Prescription meds
- Diagnostic testing
- Chronic conditions
- Hereditary conditions
Though these are the most common medical conditions covered, some companies offer expanded lists. Some include rehabilitation and even alternative treatments, like acupuncture and laser therapies. You can even extend your plan’s policy to cover your pet’s behavioral conditions.
Exclusions. The major exclusion with nearly all pet insurance companies is pre-existing conditions. Each company has its own definition of what constitutes a pre-existing condition. But a common definition is any health condition for which your pet has been treated within 12 months prior to acceptance into the plan.
Many companies will provide coverage for pre-existing conditions after 12 or 24 months have passed since the latest episode. That said, some companies will cover any pre-existing conditions known to exist at the time of application. If your pet does have a pre-existing condition, you’ll need to be aware of exactly how the insurance company will handle it.
Other exclusions include cosmetic procedures (as for show dogs), declawing, ear cleaning, or an act of war.
Another common exclusion is wellness coverage. That includes spaying or neutering. But many companies offer a wellness coverage benefit at additional cost, which we’ll cover in this section.
Accidents Only
Pet insurance companies offer accident-only policies to enable pet owners to purchase partial coverage at a greatly reduced rate. Though it does not extend to coverage for illnesses, it does cover common accidents and injuries, including broken bones, sprains, ingesting poison, and injuries resulting from collisions or attacks by other animals.
Just as is the case with comprehensive policies, there are certain accidents and injuries that don’t qualify for coverage. These include events like intentional injury inflicted by the pet owner, injuries sustained from racing or fighting, or a dog acting in a personal protection capacity.
And as is typically the case with all insurance policies, any accidents sustained in the commission of an illegal act – presumably by the pet’s owner – won’t be covered.
Wellness Coverage (Preventive Care)
Wellness care refers to any type of treatment that is not related to an illness or injury. That includes annual physicals, vaccinations, preventive treatments, and other routine vet visits.
Only a very small number of companies include any kind of wellness coverage within their comprehensive care plans. The reason they don’t is simple: to lower premium costs.
Wellness visits, while typically low in cost, are both frequent and predictable. Including them within a comprehensive plan would raise premiums by several hundred dollars per year.
However, most pet insurance companies offer wellness coverage as an additional policy option. As such, it gives pet owners the choice of either including routine care in the plan and paying a little extra or paying out of pocket for routine care and visits.
Embrace has one of the best examples of a wellness plan, which they refer to as Wellness Rewards for Routine Care. It is a separate policy option and offers different reimbursement tiers that cover essential pet treatments like grooming, vaccinations, and even training.
You can also be reimbursed for wellness exam fees, microchipping, flea, tick, and heartworm prevention, spaying and neutering, fecal and routine blood tests, and cremation or burial costs.
Most pet insurance companies offer similar wellness coverage options.
Benefit Limits
Benefit limits with pet insurance have a lot of moving parts, and you need to be aware of them all.
First and foremost is the dollar benefit limit. There are two types, unlimited, and capped.
Unlimited means the company will pay all covered expenses after you’ve paid the plan deductible and coinsurance provision. You should be aware that this type of benefit will be more expensive than capped plans.
Capped means the insurance company will pay the cost of covered expenses after you’ve paid the plan deductible and coinsurance provisions, but only up to a specified dollar amount. Any amounts that exceed that limit will need to be paid by the pet owner.
This type of plan can have any one or a combination of three provisions:
- Annual maximums – the dollar limit the company will pay in total expenses in any one year.
- Annual per incident – the dollar limit the company will pay for any specific treatment, condition or illness.
- Lifetime maximum – this is the total dollar amount of benefits the insurance company will provide over the lifetime of your pet. However, it can also establish a lifetime maximum payment on a per-incident basis.
The next limit is the coinsurance provision. Though some companies offer unlimited benefit reimbursement, most set percentage limits. Those limits are typically 70%, 80%, and 90% of the number of covered expenses after the deductible has been fully met.
Those percentages represent the ratio of expenses the insurance company will pay. For example, if the percentage limit is 80%, the insurance company will pay $8,000 out of a $10,000 vet bill.
Similar to coinsurance premiums on human health insurance plans, coinsurance with pet plans is a form of expense sharing. Since you will be paying 10%, 20%, or 30% of eligible expenses, the insurance company will charge a lower premium than will be the case for a plan with unlimited coverage.
Routine Versus Comprehensive
We’ve already touched on the difference between comprehensive and accident-only coverage. But the difference between routine and comprehensive is that comprehensive is designed to cover treatment of both illnesses and accidents, while routine coverage typically refers to wellness (or preventive) care.
Once again, most pet insurance companies exclude routine (or wellness) care from comprehensive policies. You can add it as a policy add-on, which will result in a higher premium. Otherwise, you can pay out-of-pocket for routine expenses, like annual checkups and vaccinations.
If the premium cost of the wellness policy exceeds the amount you typically spend on routine care, the better choice will be to continue paying out-of-pocket.
It should also be remembered that wellness plans only cover routine medical events up to a fixed dollar amount. There may be also an annual limit on reimbursable items.
Carefully examine all provisions of a wellness plan before deciding to add it to your pet insurance policy.
Other Covered Treatments
Medical technology and therapies are expanding for pets just as they are for people. Because of this, the pet insurance industry has responded by making a wider variety of treatments and therapies available than what you might expect.
Some of the more unusual covered treatments include:
Specialty care: specialist vets including, but not limited to, oncologists, ophthalmologists, neurologists, and cardiologists.
Alternative care: non-traditional therapies and holistic practices like acupuncture, chiropractic, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, massage, and herb treatments.
Behavioral therapy: provides pets and their caretakers with tools to manage conditions like anxiety or over-aggressive tendencies.
Prosthetic and mobility aids: assist pets that have difficulties getting around. They could include wheelchairs, boots, socks, splints, and harnesses.
Check your policy provisions carefully before undergoing any unusual procedures. Each company has a different set of inclusions and exclusions that you’ll need to be aware of.
How Much Pet Insurance Do You Need?
Like all types of insurance, the cost must always be weighed against the benefit provided. That creates a balancing act between having enough insurance to cover most potential medical events, but not so much that the cost of a policy becomes prohibitive.
Fortunately, healthcare costs for pets are much less expensive than it is for people. For that reason, it’s unlikely you’ll need nearly as much coverage.
That said, it’s not unusual for hospitalizations, surgeries, and follow-up treatments to cost several thousand dollars. But unless you have a very unhealthy – or unlucky – pet, medical events of that magnitude aren’t likely to happen more than once or twice each year.
While the certainty of an unlimited policy may be emotionally comforting, it may be financially unnecessary. Most dog owners would be adequately covered with a maximum benefit of between $20,000 and $30,000, while cat owners could make do with $15,000 to $20,000 of coverage.
The lower the maximum benefit, the less expensive the policy will be. At the same time, you want to be sure the policy will cover a worst-case scenario.
How Much Does Pet Insurance Cost?
Let’s start with the average cost of pet insurance for dogs and cats, just as a basis for comparison. Based on an analysis by Forbes Advisor, the typical monthly pet insurance cost for 2024 is $44 for dogs and $30 for cats.
Remember, however, those are just averages. The actual amount of your own pet policy will depend on a number of factors, including:
- Your geographic location – in some regions, veterinary care is more expensive than in others, in addition to the prevalence of local pet-related diseases, hazards, and other threats.
- Maximum benefit – which we covered in the previous section.
- The breed, size, and age of your pet – premiums will be higher for larger and older pets, as well as for certain breeds.
- The deductible you choose – the higher the deductible, the lower the premium, and vice versa.
Once again, the maximum benefit is a combination of a dollar limit and a percentage limit. The lower the maximum benefit and coverage percentage, the lower the premium will be, and vice versa.
The same is true with the deductible. A $500 deductible will result in a lower premium than a $250 deductible.
In choosing the combination of the maximum dollar benefit, the maximum percentage benefit, and the deductible, you’ll need to carefully consider your financial ability to cover any expenses that may not be paid by the insurance company.
If cash is tight, you should choose a low deductible and a high percentage limit, like 90% or even 100%, if it’s offered.
But if you normally have several thousand dollars in an emergency fund to cover the extra expenses, you’ll be able to afford the potential out-of-pocket costs in exchange for a lower monthly premium.
It should also be kept in mind that the less money you pay in premiums, the more cash you’ll have to put into emergency savings for just such a purpose.
For a deeper discussion of pet insurance costs, check out our post, How Much Is Pet Insurance?
Additional Pet Insurance Considerations
When shopping for pet insurance, there are other considerations to keep in mind.
Once again, don’t buy a policy with more coverage than you’re likely to need. While unlimited insurance may be desirable in a health insurance policy for yourself and your family, it’s overkill with pet insurance. There’s no point paying for coverage you’ll never use.
Do some careful number-crunching before choosing a wellness policy. According to the ASPCA, the average annual cost for routine veterinary care is $410 for dogs and $300 for cats. Use that as a guide in deciding whether or not to add the provision to your plan.
Work only with pet insurance companies that will cover reimbursements to any licensed veterinarian or care facility. You can never know when you’ll be away from home and your regular vet.
Be aware that most pet insurance companies work on a reimbursement system. You’ll need to pay the provider fees at the time of service, with reimbursement from the insurance company to follow within days or weeks. You’ll need to have either cash or credit lines available to cover the upfront expense.
Remember, the time to purchase pet insurance is before your pet has an accident or begins to show signs of illness. Waiting periods are established by the insurance companies specifically to avoid consumers taking policies to cover a single event, and then canceling the policy.
How We Found the Best Pet Insurance Companies
In coming up with our list of the seven best pet insurance companies of 2024 we reviewed a large number of providers, then whittled the number down to what we believe to be the very best in the industry.
We’ve given consideration to company’s reputation, premium cost, benefit levels, options for deductions and benefit limits, special treatment provisions, and other unique features.
We believe the seven companies included in this guide meet the criteria of being among the top providers in the industry.
But despite our own research, we recommend you conduct your own investigation into each company. In the final analysis, you’ll need to work with a company and a plan that will be best suited to you, your pet, in your household’s financial situation.
Summary of the Best Pet Insurance Companies of 2024
The cost of healthcare for pets is rising much the same as it is for people. Given that 69% of Americans don’t have as much as $1,000 to cover an emergency expense, having pet health insurance has become increasingly necessary.
This guide helps you choose the right plan for you and your pet.
- Figo Pet: Best for Full Reimbursements
- Embrace: Best Dental Coverage
- TrustedPals: Best for Older Pets
- Nationwide: Best for Exotic Pets
- Healthy Paws: Best for Quick Reimbursements
- Pets Best: Best for Direct Payments
- Fetch: Best for Comprehensive Coverage
If you’re unsure whether to purchase a pet insurance plan, project yourself into a situation where your pet has just sustained a life-threatening injury or illness. Do you have sufficient cash resources to cover a worst-case scenario?
If not, a good pet insurance policy will give you treatment options, and avoid needing to put down your unnecessarily.
I am purchasing a Bengal adolescent. Please proved me with pricing and coverage information.