Pet Insurance

How pet insurance works

Pet insurance works on reimbursement, which makes it different from your own health insurance. You pay the vet yourself, then file a claim with the receipt. Most plans let you use any licensed vet, including emergency clinics and specialists.

Three numbers decide what you get back. The deductible is what you pay before the plan kicks in. The reimbursement rate is the share of each covered bill the plan pays after that, usually 70%, 80% or 90%. The annual limit caps what the plan will pay in a year.

Say your dog needs a $2,000 surgery and your plan has a $250 deductible with 80% reimbursement. The plan pays 80% of the $1,750 left after the deductible, so you get $1,400 back and you're out $600 total.

What pet insurance covers, and what it doesn't

There are three kinds of plans. Accident-only plans cover injuries, like a swallowed toy, a torn ligament or a car accident. Accident and illness plans cover those plus illnesses such as infections, digestive problems and cancer, and they're what most people mean by pet insurance. Wellness add-ons pay toward routine care like checkups and vaccines.

A few things almost no plan covers. Pre-existing conditions are the big one: anything your pet showed signs of before you enrolled is usually excluded. Cosmetic procedures aren't covered, and routine care isn't either unless you buy the wellness add-on. Most plans also have a waiting period before coverage starts, often a few days for accidents and a couple of weeks for illnesses, so you can't buy a policy the day your pet gets sick.

Dental coverage varies a lot from plan to plan. We break it down in does pet insurance cover dental.

How much pet insurance costs

Based on NAPHIA's 2025 averages, here's what each kind of plan costs per year:

• Accident only: $190 for dogs and $112 for cats.
• Accident and illness: $836 for dogs (about $70 a month) and $435 for cats (about $36 a month).
• Accident and illness with wellness: $1,414 for dogs and $859 for cats.

Prices are climbing fast: accident and illness premiums rose 11.5% for dogs and 12.6% for cats in 2025 alone. Your own price depends on your pet's species, age and breed, your ZIP code, and the deductible, reimbursement rate and limit you pick. Our pet insurance cost guide walks through all of it, with a guide for every state.

How to choose a pet insurance plan

Start with accident and illness coverage unless your budget truly can't stretch. Accidents are only part of what sends pets to the vet, and illness is where the big bills tend to come from.

Then set the three numbers to fit your savings. If you could handle a $500 surprise but not a $5,000 one, a higher deductible with a solid annual limit usually beats a low deductible with a low limit. Read the waiting periods and how the policy defines pre-existing conditions before you buy, because that's where most claim surprises come from.

If you have a dog, our guide to the best pet insurance for dogs compares plans side by side. Got more than one pet? See the best pet insurance for multiple pets. When you're ready, you can compare pet insurance quotes for your own pet.