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Fido just leaped for a frisbee and now he’s limping. What’s wrong with him? Do I need to take him to the vet? How much will it cost? This is why pet insurance is so critical. In a time of panic, you should be worrying about the health of your dog, not the number in your bank account. We rate the biggest names in the pet health insurance industry based on our own research and provide you with a summary of what each company offers as well as pros and cons for each. Feel free to click on the “Read Review” text below the company name in the table below to go straight to its review.
Top Pet Insurance Companies 2017
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| Overall Ranking | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Honorable Mention | Honorable Mention |
| Policy Coverage | 4.5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.5 | 4 |
| Customer Service & Reputation | 4.75 | 4 | 3.5 | 4 | 4 |
| Claim Payment | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4 | 4.5 | 4 |
| Price of Policy | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Total Score | 4.63 | 4.50 | 4.06 | 4.00 | 3.88 |
| Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website |
| Read Review | Read Review | Read Review | Read Review | Read Review | Read Review |
Pet Insurance Cost & Coverage Comparison Tables
Our coverage comparison is fairly straightforward, but pricing gets a little more complicated as the price quote for your specific pet will be very unique to your pet, their age, breed, geographic, location, and a number of other factors. For this reason, we encourage you to get quotes from multiple companies before deciding on a pet insurance provider. By entering your pet’s specific characteristics you can get a better understanding of the coverage he or she needs. We have put together a couple of comparison tables that address cost and coverage issues:
- Pet Insurance Cost Comparison
- Pet Insurance Coverage Comparison
- Get Pet Insurance Price Quotes from Top Three Companies (FREE)
These links will open comparison tables in a new window so you can compare coverage and costs side-by-side as you research company reviews. There are three different dog breeds and one cat breed to help show you what each company offers. We will continue to update these tables as prices and coverage change. If you are unsure where to start, be sure to read our main dog insurance article.
SlideShare: Pet Insurance Reviews Summary
Healthy Paws Review
| #1 |  |
Healthy Paws continues to impress us with their unlimited benefits with no per-incident, annual or lifetime caps. You can also customize your out-of-pocket expense risk by adjusting your policy’s co-pay (10%, 20% or 30%) and deductible ($100, $250, or $500) when you sign up. There are also far fewer coverage exclusions than some of their competitors so, on paper, it appears that it is less likely your claim will be denied so long as you keep paying your bill on time. What could they improve on? Healthy Paws does not offer a wellness plan to cover annual vet visits, and they do not provide a multi-pet discount. However, if you are looking for discounts, check out the coupon code below to save up to 10% on your policy. Overall we think Healthy Paws is a great company to go with for your pet insurance needs. With their unlimited benefits, great customer service and reasonable prices, we’ve chosen them as the best dog insurance company this year.
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Coupon Code
Use this link and you will automatically receive up to a 10% discount. The actual discount varies based on individual state regulations. You can also visit our dedicated HealthyPaws promotions page to discuss current offers.
Read our full review of Healthy Paws
Pets Best Review
| #2 |  |
We have been very impressed with our findings from Pets Best. In fact, they put up a good fight against Healthy Paws but ultimately fell short. Pets Best has stepped it up with the items they cover in addition to their low priced “Accident Only Plan” which allows you to insure against unexpected pet emergencies without charging you monthly for the lower priced (vet exams) or less likely costs (rehab, chiropractic and acupuncture care). Their deductibles range from $50 to $1,000. Each plan offered by Pet’s Best can be customized for deductible cost, annual coverage cost and the level of reimbursement given. Their contract includes excellent coverage but, as always, we recommend you read the policy paperwork thoroughly before purchasing.
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Coupon Code
Our readers have access to an exclusive PetsBest discount of 5% off BestBenefit plans for the first year! Just use this link to get started (Eligible in all states except AK, FL, HI and TN and does not apply to accident only plan or wellness rider). You can also visit our dedicated Pets Best promotions page to discuss current offers.
View our full review of Pets Best
Petplan Review
| #3 |  |
Petplan was consistently our #1 pick for best pet insurance, but due to an underwriter change which increased prices we have bumped them down to the #3 spot. Petplan offers unlimited annual coverage but at a higher price on average compared to our top picks. However, we still think Petplan offers great coverage for pets. Petplan offers fully customizable plans that allow pet parents more options. They have a great claim repayment reputation and allow 30 days for claim repayment but average 5-14 days. We’re a little concerned about some points in their contract. The contract states you must take your dog to the vet within 48 hours of noticing the symptoms. This could be difficult if your dog gets sick Friday evening and the vet isn’t open until Monday morning (however, you can go to the emergency vet). Also, it says that you must take your dog for an annual check up for your coverage to be applied. So you could be paying the monthly fee for your plan, but your dog still may not be covered if they haven’t had their yearly vet check up. (Be sure you make annual check ups a priority!) However, we know of occasions where a claim was repaid even though the dog had not been to the vet in over a year. So, maybe this is just a precaution in case a dog has been neglected for years and then they have a costly claim that may have been prevented with annual vet wellness checkups.
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Coupon Code
Use coupon code CanineJournal to receive an additional 5% discount (10% total if you sign up online). Alternatively, if you call 800-237-1123 you will automatically get the additional 5% discount! You can also visit our dedicated Petplan promotions page to discuss current offers.
Read our full review of Petplan
Trupanion Review
| Honorable Mention |  |
Trupanion has been consistently moving up in our rankings and this year they receive the Honorable Mention award. Their deductibles are per condition and lifetime, meaning that once it is paid, you never pay it again for that condition. Trupanion operates their own insurance underwriting, unlike most other companies, which are backed by other insurance brands. This allows them to pay back 70 cents in claims payments of every dollar paid in premiums. Why aren’t they ranked higher? Trupanion is more expensive than our top three for similar coverage, in some cases Trupanion is double the price. We’d like to see their prices be more comparable to our top three in the near future.
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*Vet Direct Pay: Trupanion pays the vet directly in as little as five minutes. You don’t have to wait for a reimbursement. Instead, Trupanion pays its portion and you pay the remainder.
Coupon Code
There are not any active Trupanion coupon codes at this time.
Read our full review of Trupanion
Embrace Review
| Honorable Mention |  |
Embrace is also awarded the Honorable Mention award due to its consistent coverage and pricing. Embrace has great customer support options and a rather good reputation overall. We’re impressed that they have no additional waiting periods for hip dysplasia or CCL coverage and they are one of the few companies with no transaction or one time fees. When it comes to monthly premiums, Embrace can be all over the board, so we recommend getting a quote for your specific pet. Regarding their claims, they say they’ll repay them in 5 to 15 days but customers say it can be a hassle getting Embrace to pay them and they don’t always cover what they say they’ll cover. They also tend to fall a little behind on technology for claims submissions versus the top players in this field, which is why they aren’t ranked higher.
Tip: If you have USAA you can get a discount with Embrace.
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Coupon Code
Embrace offers a few different discount options. Spayed or neutered pets get a 5% discount. if you have multiple pets, each one gets 5% off. You can also pay annually and get 5% off. Click here to access any of these discounts.
Read our full review of Embrace
Other Pet Insurance Companies Not Ranked
The companies listed below did not make our rankings, but we still decided to review them in case you wanted to learn more about them. Perhaps they will make our rankings in a future update of this article!
24PetWatch | AKC | ASPCA | FIGO | Nationwide | PetFirst
Companies Not Ranked
We are unable to rank some of the pet insurance companies due to a lack of details available to answer what we feel are pretty standard questions customers would have when choosing a provider.
Further, there are many new pet insurance companies popping up due to the popularity and high demand. In the past, we have seen new companies enter the pet insurance space with extremely low prices. However, after some time in business and paying some claims these companies increase their prices to make ends meet. This ends up hurting the customers because their premiums increase drastically and if they submitted a claim their pet now has a pre-existing condition. So if they change providers, that condition will not be covered by another pet insurance provider. In the end, they may have been better off going with a different, more established company. Because of this, we have decided not to rank pet insurance companies that don’t have at least five years of experience. We feel that this gives companies time to establish a consistent pricing system and reputation, which helps us evaluate them better and gives customers a better idea of what to expect. FIGO (founded in 2015) has been excluded for this reason.
24PetWatch Review
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24PetWatch, founded in 2000, offers pet insurance for dogs as long as you enroll them before the age of ten years old. In the quotes we ran, 24PetWatch was consistently among the more expensive options. They also don’t offer unlimited claims as an option, which is a feature we’ve come to expect from pet insurance providers. However, one cool thing 24PetWatch does is they will cover chronic conditions if your pet has gone 24 months symptom free. This is not standard for pet insurance providers.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active 24PetWatch coupon codes at this time.
Read our full review of 24 Pet Watch
AKC Pet Insurance Review
AKC Pet Insurance, founded in 2003, doesn’t require vet records or an exam prior to enrollment, so we’re a bit confused on how they determine pre-existing conditions. There are age restrictions and they require an additional fee for inherited conditions to be covered. They have more limitations compared to other pet insurance providers and only cover hip dysplasia for dogs enrolled two-years-old or younger. AKC was also consistently among the most expensive when we ran our quotes.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active AKC Pet Insurance coupon codes at this time.
ASPCA Insurance Review (aka Crum & Forster)
Unfortunately, when looking through the overall features offered by the ASPCA insurance company, we cannot highly recommend this company. It’s important to note that this company, also known as Hartville Pet Health Insurance, pays a licensing fee to use the ASPCA name but are not directly affiliated with the ASPCA. The company, founded in 2006, has a history of low reimbursements, even under their highest cost plan. ASPCA does not cover multiple surgical incidents of foreign object ingestion in a 12-month policy period.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active ASPCA Pet Health Insurance coupon codes at this time.
Read our full review of ASPCA Pet Insurance
FIGO Review
FIGO, a new company that was founded in 2015, was consistently among the least expensive pet insurance providers when we ran our quotes. It has no per incident caps and it covers vet exam fees in addition to hip dysplasia. There is a senior wellness testing for dogs older than eight — we’re not sure exactly what that entails but it is required. Overall it’s not a bad company but it’s missing the reputation we’ve come to expect from our winners, which is why it’s not ranked in our comparison. After FIGO gets a few more years under its belt we’ll be able to evaluate the company further and perhaps you’ll see them in our top three.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active FIGO coupon codes at this time.
Nationwide Review
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Nationwide Insurance (previously VPI) is one of the most well known dog health insurance companies. VPI was founded in 1982 and Nationwide acquired and started selling VPI’s pet insurance in 2015. However, they behave very differently from the other pet insurance companies when it comes to reimbursements (they use a standard list of prices to determine pay back prices for procedures and covered items, regardless of what your vet actually charges you). Nationwide is among the least expensive but they don’t have a reputation for timely reimbursements despite the ability to track claims in real-time online. Unfortunately, Nationwide has a track record of poor customer service and quietly raising monthly premium rates as pets age.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active Nationwide Pet Insurance coupon codes at this time.
Read our full review of Nationwide Pet Insurance
PetFirst Review
PetFirst was founded in 2004. Even though they have been in business for more than a decade, there are not a ton of reviews out there for us to share. for It has a short waiting period for accidents (only one day after enrollment) but its claim repayment is longer than competitors (30 days). Other than that, not too much stands out about PetFirst. We suggest you request a quote and read a sample policy to see if Pet First is good fit for you and your pup.
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Coupon Code
There are not any active PetFirst coupon codes at this time.
Get Your Money Back
Dogs are quick and sneaky and there are times where you won’t be watching and they’ll do something they shouldn’t be doing. That’s exactly what Atlas did and fortunately, his parents had dog insurance for him. Atlas was able to get the care he needed and his parents didn’t go broke.
Decide Which Pet Health Insurance Company Is Best For You
The number of pet insurance companies to choose from is overwhelming. Most of the time, people choose to go with the largest company that is the most well-known so they don’t have to compare the companies themselves. If you decide to do the research yourself, there are some things you should take into consideration:
- Your biggest concern as a pet parent should be the reputation of a pet insurance provider as offering the coverage you need at a price you can afford. Getting a pet insurance policy is useless if it doesn’t cover what you expect it to cover or if you can’t afford the monthly premium. Remember, although cost is an important factor, it is not the most important. Your pet’s protection and coverage in the case of an emergency is your number one priority so be sure to make your decision with the long-term in mind.
- After you narrow your search down based on these requirements the next step is deciding what you want covered for your dog and what additional perks may be negotiable to lower your costs. If you’d like to learn more about terms you should know regarding insurance for dogs, reference our terminology page.
Picking a pet insurance plan is a personal choice and no one knows what your dog needs better than you. Take the time to make an informed decision and know that in the long run it’ll be worth having the added protection.
Don’t see the national pet health insurance company you’re looking for? Leave a comment below with the company you’d like reviewed and we’ll get to work!
Leave a Reply
19 Comments on "Pet Insurance Reviews 2017"
How often do you guys update your pet insurance reviews? Will new rankings be coming out Jan 1 2018?
Great question Patrick. We re-evaluate pet insurance quarterly and make any ranking updates we see fit. Sometimes there are no changes to the content. We can’t guarantee a ranking change but we can guarantee that the rankings that are live in this article are the most current rankings we have. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thank you for this in-depth article! You’ve helped me pick out the best policy for my fur baby.
Happy we could help you Amy!
It would be interesting to know how much the plans go up every year or which company is worse about price hikes . How much do these plans go up after your dog reaches older age? What companies offer the option to pay annually or pay annually for a discount? How long have these company been in buisness?
There is no guarantee on how much premiums will increase year to year because it varies by pet. We’d love to analyze this, but there is not concrete information that we have access to. We are not aware of any of these companies offering a discount for paying annually. Some of these companies charge a transaction fee, so by paying annually you would reduce the number of times you would pay the transaction fee. This is something we are in the process of adding to our Pet Insurance Quotes page. You can find the years these companies were founded if you scroll down to the heading “The Rest of the Pack” in this article.
Thank you for this excellent summary. There is a lot of information on pet insurance on the internet and putting it all together as you have done is very helpful. The summary of benefits, the analysis of pros and cons, and the comments from users are all excellent features. Following Petplans recent 100% increase of premiums for my two 10-year old dogs I wanted to switch insurance companies if possible and your article helped me to quickly assess my options and make a decision. And I appreciate the 10% discount on Healthy Paws I was able to receive by signing up through your website! Thank you, thank you!
So glad we could help you Carlos. Thank you for the kind words.
Trupanion looks for ways to deny or chsrge deductibles on every claim. Your dog can have cancer and yet it will keep charging deductibles as different diagnosis if your animal has 2 or 3 different types even when continuing carevis the sane for all (continuing chemo or holistic rx or radiation for example). They want to not reimburse you.
Per the site, “Pets Best offers two tiers of routine care that can be added to one of our BestBenefit plans for additional premium at the time you enroll, within 30 days of enrolling, or at your annual renewal. Benefits are available to you the day after you enroll so you can start using your routine care plan as soon as your policy goes into effect.”
Another con for PetPlan is its systems security. Even when not requested, the PetPlan system sends to customers e-mail messages that contain their usernames and passwords in clear text, i.e. unencrypted. In addition, PetPlan customer service representatives have access to and can view customers’ account passwords, which conflicts with standard security practices. The practical implication is an unauthorized person could gain access to information about you and your pet. Fortunately, PetPlan does not store customers’ charge card information in the My Account section.
Hi Maldav, we’ve made necessary changes to no longer allow for usernames and passwords to be passed via email in clear text. Your concerns were valid and we listened.
Healthy Paws is not all-inclusive as they advertise. Pay close attention to the fine print. My dog had a knee injury 11 days into the policy and Healthy Paws wouldn’t cover any of it because the 15-day waiting period had not yet ended. Even though he had surgery after the waiting period, they wouldn’t cover it because “clinical signs or symptoms of the condition treated were noted in his medical records as being present during the waiting period”. They wouldn’t even cover the consultation because they don’t cover that either. They only cover the cost of the veterinary treatment (not the cost of the vet consult or anything other than the actual “treatment”) “related to an accident, illness or injury where the clinical signs or symptoms were first present after the enrollment date and waiting periods”. They require you to submit all previous vet records including doctor’s notes from birth to present. If there is any sign whatsoever that your pet had the problem before the policy, they will not cover it. And if they do, they only cover a part of it. Don’t waste your money and jump through hoops, like I did, for nothing.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Healthy Paws! Unfortunately, most insurance companies have waiting periods (some longer than others). Were you able to find another pet insurance company to go with?
I won’t be able to use any other insurance company now that Healthy Paws has deemed my pup’s injury as pre-existing. Now I’m screwed for anything relating to his knee for his entire life. This whole experience has turned me off to pet insurance, period.
USAA does not offer their own pet insurance, they simply offer an up to 15% discount with Embrace to USAA members.
Thank you for the information! The information we found was rather confusing for USAA but this helps clear it up some. Thanks again!
Excellent, thorough comparisons; thanks!
Concerning listing “Veterinary exam fee is not covered” as one of the CONS for Healthy Paws, for which the full review states: “No wellness add-on option for annual and other maintenance visits, so exam fees are not covered, but you can plan for these since they are about the same cost every time. Healthy Paws claims that this makes the monthly premium more affordable.”: Can you elaborate on what you mean by a “veterinarian exam fee”?
Unless I’m misunderstanding what you mean, as a former Petplan customer I can state that they do not cover these, either. For instance, unless their benefits have changed, Petplan doesn’t cover annual exams/checkups. To their credit, they *do* (or, at least, *did*) cover exam fees for illnesses, resulting in the diagnosis of conditions such as urinary tract infections, pancreatitis, etc. Are you saying that Healthy Paws wouldn’t cover the exam fees for illnesses?
A veteranary exam fee is what you pay to have the vet see your dog. So if your dog is in for his yearly checkup the fee that you pay for the exam alone is what the vet exam fee is.
If you look here under “What is Covered by Petplan” you’ll see that “Veterinary exam or office visit fees” are not covered but “Non-routine veterinary exam or office visit fees” are covered.
https://www.caninejournal.com/petplan-insurance-reviews/
Healthy Paws does not cover exam fees. Whether they are routine visits or unexpected illness/accident visits.
Does that make sense?