Pet insurance, like human medical insurance, can be hard to navigate, and the cost of being uninformed can impact your wallet as much as your pet’s health. Fortunately for Californians, Senator Steve Glazer’s 2025 reform law requires insurers to provide clearer disclosures. That means you’re more likely to understand exactly what your plan will — and won’t — cover.
This blog will guide you through the basics of choosing the right coverage for your pets.
Why Consider Pet Insurance?
Veterinary costs have been rising faster than inflation for years — about 60% higher than the inflation rate over the last decade, with no signs of slowing. Insurance helps protect your budget and ensures your animals get the care they need without forcing you to choose between treatment and finances.
With roughly 30–35 providers in North America, there are plenty of options. Each has strengths and trade-offs, so the first step is deciding what type of coverage fits your needs.
Types of Pet Insurance
Accident-Only Coverage
- Covers: Emergencies such as broken bones, poison ingestion, or being hit by a car.
- Doesn’t cover: Preventive care, illnesses, allergies, infections, or cancers.
- Best for: Owners who want peace of mind for sudden accidents. You may never use it — but when you do, it can prevent a major financial shock.
Accident & Illness (Comprehensive) Coverage
- Covers: Everything in Accident-Only plus illnesses such as chronic conditions, infections, cancer, and often hereditary conditions.
- Check for: Whether diagnostics, prescription medications, surgeries, hospitalizations, and specialty care are included.
- Excludes: Preexisting conditions, elective or cosmetic procedures.
Wellness or Preventive Care Plans (sometimes called “wellness riders” or “care packages”)
- Covers: Routine services like vaccinations, annual exams, spay/neuter, flea/tick/heartworm preventatives, and dental cleanings.
- Doesn’t cover: Accidents or illnesses.
- Important for Californians: Wellness programs are not legally considered “insurance” because they don’t cover unexpected risks. Under Senator Glazer’s bill, insurance companies label these plans separately from insurance to prevent confusion.
Specialized or Supplemental Coverage
Some insurers also offer add-ons for specific needs, such as hereditary/genetic conditions (hip dysplasia, heart disease) or alternative therapies (acupuncture, rehab, chiropractic care).
No matter what coverage makes sense to keep your companion healthy, there are eight key questions we recommend you ask before signing up for pet insurance.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign Up
Deductibles/Caps
- Does the policy have a waiting period? Most policies delay coverage for 14––30 days after enrollment. Anything that arises beforehand won’t be covered.
- What is the policy deductible? How much do you have to spend out of pocket each year (or per condition) before coverage begins?
- Are there coverage caps? Is coverage limited by incident, annually, or over your pet’s lifetime?
- Does the policy exclude hereditary or congenital conditions? This is important for breeds prone to certain issues.
Claims/Reimbursements
- How do reimbursements work? Do you pay upfront and get reimbursed? How quickly?
- How are claims calculated? Are claim amounts based on your actual vet bill, or a preset fee schedule?
- When are claims denied? What’s the appeal or dispute process?
- At renewal, will coverage change? In California, insurers cannot drop coverage for conditions that developed while your pet was insured.
Other Considerations
- Rising premiums: Expect costs to increase as your pet ages and as veterinary prices rise.
- Tax question: HSAs and FSAs cannot be used for pet expenses — the IRS doesn’t recognize pets as dependents. Some employers, however, offer pet insurance or stipends as a voluntary benefit.
The Bigger Picture
Pet insurance is an investment in your companion’s health and your peace of mind. Research has proven that people with pet insurance visit the vet more often and sustain care more consistently through their animal’s life. As one emergency vet reported, many of the issues seen today in emergency rooms could have been avoided or caught earlier with routine veterinary care. In addition to saving you money in the long run, buying a plan could make pet insurance more accessible for everyone right now. Like all insurance products, having more people signed up creates a larger pool of users to spread risks and costs. 50% of pet owners in Europe—where costs are much lower—use pet insurance compared to only 5% in the US. The more data insurance companies gain the easier it becomes to predict risk. All of these considerations can help lower the cost of insurance for all users over time.
Final Thought
As the cost of care rises, the question is: Will you be ready? We encourage you to consider your pet’s health needs for the coming year and explore whether pet insurance is right for your family. Insurance ensures that when the unexpected happens, your decisions can be guided by love and medical need with less stress and worry about the financial impact.