r/petinsurancereviews

Hello,

I just received my annual notice of premium increases from Fetch Pet Insurance, and it has jumped from a little over $2,000 to over $8,000 in a year. I don't understand what is going on or what I should do. My quarterly premium will now cost nearly as much as the annual premium I paid last year.

I have a senior dog, and she has been using Fetch Pet since it was called PetPlan way back when. Over the years, this insurance has changed underwriters and owners, which has reduced many of the perks that convinced me to sign on with PetPlan in the beginning, but due to my dog's now-chronic issues/pre-existing conditions, I never looked to other insurance companies. Are there any other insurance companies that accept pre-existing conditions?

Any suggestions? I need the insurance, but the premium increase is insane considering nothing has changed with the plan.

Thank you for any help/advice.

I posted yesterday asking for positive experiences between Pets Best and Chewy administered by Trupanion. Thank you for everyone who replied. I’m leaning towards Pets Best because I have 4 cats and two of them are older cats.

Cat Ages: 11, 8, 9 weeks old, 9 weeks old

My 11 year old has stage 2 dental disease and corneal scarring. He also has vomiting noted on his chart and the doctor included it’s from when he eats my hair and/or table food. I know they can connect vomiting to GI issues so I’m really insuring him incase he develops a urinary blockage, thyroid issues, or diabetes.

I just want to hear positive Pets Best stories because there are so many horror ones.

My questions:
- Age of cat(s)
- What age did you insure them?
- How long did reimbursement take?
- How long have you been with Pets Best?

Cat has been on Embrace insurance since she was a kitten (she's almost 10 y.o. now). A few years ago I took her to vet because she seemed sick and it turned out to be just a cold. I filed a claim and got reimbursed but my premium went up $15/mo upon renewal and has gone up another $5 since then.

Fast forward to now: she was not eating her usual amount for a few weeks so I took her in. Vet felt a mass so we did ultrasound and urine culture. No real diagnosis but she does have sediments in her bladder. Nothing to be concerned about. Not a condition. More water should fix it. Kidneys are fine. Full bill came out $1158.

Should I file a claim? I worry about 2 things:

- How badly will my premium go up? Currently it's $63/mo ($756/yr) -- Which is <= to the vet bill after deductable. I don't see why they would keep my premium the same after paying out equal or more than I paid them in a 12 month period. If this is a one time thing... Increasing my bill forever would be annoying (on the other hand they may raise the premium anyway since shes older)

- What if they drop me? This one is more concerning. I've read horror stories on here of people being dropped from coverage. Obviously she's got many years left and being dropped now would be terrible. Will they see this as a sign of frivolous claims and decide it's not worth the future payout when she's older and sicker?

Does anyone have experience with Embrace claims?

Update: I read all the policy docs last night and ran them through chatgpt. Here's what I learned: BC of my state addendum I'm protected from being dropped. So there's no fear of losing coverage over too many claims.

Regarding the rate, I need to do a little more digging. There's no clause saying they will /won't use claim history to determine premiums but theres conflicting info online. It seems rate calculation criteria has to be filed with my state so I'm trying to find the specifics to see if the claim history will hike up premiums.

I can afford the bill and I made a mistake: the cat is 8yo so maybe I have 2 more years of low-ish premiums if I can avoid making them think this cat is going into its old age with a history of illness and getting a crazy hike I'd like to.

Greetings! I have narrowed it down to Trupanion through Chewy versus Pets Best. Lemonade is my third choice and I am extremely apprehensive because of their artificial intelligence model.

I have 4 cats: 11, 8, 9 weeks old, 9 weeks old

$250 deductible, 90% reimbursement, $20K annual cap or unlimited

What’s important to me is:
- Accident and Illness coverage
- Exam Fee coverage
- Prescription Meds coverage (I don’t want to be forced to buy through Chewy, though?)

My 11 year old cat has 2 pre-existing conditions: corneal ulcer scarring and stage 2 dental disease. There is also “vomiting” noted in his record but they included that the vomiting occurs only when he eats my hair and/or table food crumbs. I am aware the insurance company can possibly link this note to future conditions.

Can anyone share their experiences? I just want a reliable company with decent/good customer service.

Just in case anyone is considering Fetch, they consider pet health insurance to be like auto insurance. If you dare make a claim, your rates will skyrocket. For anyone looking for insurance to keep costs known, don’t go with Fetch because you be in for a big surprise if your pet ever gets sick.

TLDR: how long after you start coverage is it active and can I possibly have a surgery covered for my new dog.

Hi there everyone! My wife and I recently adopted our second dog. She was found abandoned in the desert so we don’t know her history ❤️‍🩹 I noticed after a couple of days one of her dew claws that the nail is crushed. It’s a black nail and white is exposed underneath. 🥺 it’s not bleeding, I’ve talked to two vets (*an er vet and her primary care has seen photos, so please know we are taking this so serious and following the vets guidelines*) who said to keep her from licking and nibbling and make an appointment with her primary vet when she can get in. We wrapped it with sensi wrap for now and that’s doing the trick. I’m thinking they may advise us to have her dew claws removed. Since we know very little about her history and the rescue we adopted from we realized during and after is just so unreliable, we want to be prepared for any possible things that might come up!

Hi everyone, we got our good guy Duncan last week he is only 1.5 years old and has no prior existing conditions that we know of! Looking around at pet insurance companies to keep him protected but have heard some horror stories of nothing getting covered by companies. Was curious if people had any recs or places to avoid!

Our vet also offers a "wellness plan" that basically covers anything he'd need there (including teeth cleaning under anesthesia) but its ~$70 per month, I know the teeth cleaning gets expensive but with this being my first time being responsible for the general wellness of a pet would the ~$840 a year end up being worth it between visits, vaccines, and screenings? Since to my understanding the under anesthesia cleanings are only needed every few years or so.

Thanks so much everyone!

I used to have pet insurance YEARS ago, but when it started to be 1200 a month, we dropped it. We had 4 dogs, and the older they got, the higher the policy raised… it didn’t cover dental either.
I currently have 2 dogs, one 5, one will be 6 in October. No health issues, but one builds up a lot of tartar, even wi the brushing. Dental cleanings in my vets office are about 2000$ with anesthesia. Which insurance policy , and what wellness program would I need? And do they cover the anesthesia portion?
TYIA, Sarah, Herman and Thomas

Any recommendations. Our last dog had a rough 1st year in terms of vet visits and bills. Just trying to see whats out there.

i’ve had my dog for eight years and I’ve been with Healthy Paws insurance for all eight of those years. He has been seen consistently by a vet and I have never lapsed in my insurance policy. My dog was not diagnosed with any pre-existing conditions when I first adopted him. In the first year or so, he had his first mass cell tumor, and was diagnosed with suspected IVDD. I’ve had him treated for both. Including surgeries to remove the MCT. He’s now almost 13 and has developed chronic bronchitis, arthritis, elbow, dysplasia, that the specialist recommend we do not do surgery for, and he had an ultrasound three years ago for an enlarged spleen and liver that the doctor said was normal. Last year, he was seeing the vet a lot to get his arthritis under control and we racked up a lot of vet bills. After that, of course my premium went up to nearly $200 a month. This week, he needed x-rays for his neck and suspected IVDD and an unrelated ultrasound to recheck the spleen and liver. And those bills together were about $3000.

Healthy Paws has always processed and accepted and paid out my claims. For the first time ever, they are requesting. SOAP notes for every claim I’ve processed this year. And just today they are requesting his full medical history from his vet, I go to Modern Animal.

Has anyone ever had experience with Healthy Paws or any pet insurance asking for their pets, full medical history? I’m hesitant to hand it over because it feels like a lack of privacy and that they are trying to not pay out these expensive bills and my dog is getting older and they know these bills are only gonna get higher.

Any advice on how to handle this or someone who’s experienced something similar? Thank you.

Hi! My outdoor feral cat had kittens (I am getting her spayed on Friday) and I am planning on keeping one and giving the rest away to family and friends or the shelter to be adopted out. I am looking for pet insurance. I’ve looked at ASPCA insurance, MetLife, and Trupanion. Anyone have experience with these? There’s probably a hundred other reddits with the same qs but let me be. I’m leaning more towards Trupanion, because I like the fact that it pays the vet directly (yes, it does, I called the vet where I am planning to take her for her vaccines etc and they said they accept VetDirect Pay), however, she’s barely about 6-7 weeks, so the monthly payment for a $400 deductible with unlimited payouts would come to $63 monthly. Do you guys think it’s worth it? And have you guys done this? I have trouble saving & am planning to save for an emergency fund but I want to be 100% positive that, my kitten will be covered in the future if I have an expensive vet bill that I cannot pay out of pocket.

Please don’t leave any negative comments. I’m trying to do my best and do my research to give her the best life possible and am willing to pay a huge chunk for pet insurance.

Has anybody prepaid for a service and had issues getting insurance to cover it, specifically pet best? I prepaid for three Librela injections. I had no issues receiving reimbursement for the first injection, and was explained on my explanation of benefits that they would only pay out a third of the cost whenever the service is performed, and the injection is given. Totally understandable. I go to submit my second claim and they deny it because no amount was shown on my vet invoice other than the claim of my prepaid injection. So I called customer service and they explained because it didn’t show a dollar amount They couldn’t reimburse me anything and that I needed to resubmit my second invoice with the first showing the amount I paid. Then I get the lovely notice that they are denying my claim because it is a duplicate. So I shoot off a fiery email to customer service expressing my dissatisfaction and they respond back saying they are going to put my claim back into review and it will take 30 days. Well, the 30 days has passed and they provide me an update saying they are requesting medical records from my vet.

I just don’t understand how hard it is to divide something by three and provide my reimbursement. I find it funny how they told me they can’t go back to my original claim and determine the dollar amount but they can go back through my documents and determine I submitted a duplicate claim. They have already approved the reimbursement for the injection. They just haven’t provided me the full amount, so I’m not sure what the reason for requesting medical records are for.

my friend’s lab needed emergency surgery last weekend after swallowing part of a toy and the bill ended up being over $5k. honestly i always thought pet insurance was something people mostly overhyped online but now i kind of understand why so many dog owners talk about it. i’ve been reading through different threads and somehow every company has people saying it’s either amazing or terrible so i genuinely can’t tell what’s normal anymore. how are people actually figuring out which providers are worth looking into?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been looking into pet insurance for my guinea pig and saw a lot of older posts/comments saying Nationwide was around $20-ish per month for guinea pigs.

I called Nationwide today to get a quote, and they quoted me about $90/month/piggie (even had discount since I have 2), which was much higher than I expected.

For anyone who has guinea pig insurance through Nationwide recently, is this normal now? Did prices go up a lot, or could it depend on location, age, plan type, deductible, etc.?

I’m trying to understand if this is a typical quote or if I should call again / ask for a different plan option. Thanks!

I have had my dogs insured with HP since they were 8 weeks old. I just got my monthly bill and it went up from $200.00 to $433.00. That's over a one hundred percent increase. I can't afford it. I'm retired and on a fixed income. Not only did they increase but the increased the deductible and throttled down the coverage.

We've done everything to give our dogs the best life possible including health insurance. We expected to have their golden years covered. We thought we had planned well. Apparently not.

Does anyone have a suggestion for decent coverage for senior dogs. I have 2 cattledogs. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Good morning, I have been with Pumpkin Pet Care since my dog was 16 weeks old. They have been absolutely fantastic, and covered *almost* everything at 90%. I learned about the company from a coworker, who had 2 dogs of the same breed, and had to use her max annual amounts within the first year for both dogs due to emergency surgeries. Hearing how happy she was, and having the same breed, I chose them, as well as the same plan she had. Year 1, we paid $53/month, with a $500 deductible, $10k max annual coverage, and 90% reimbursement. Year 2, our monthly premiums went up to $67/month. Now doing on year 3, and our monthly premiums shot up to $96/month. Has anyone else had a huge jump like this? When I emailed customer service, they said the jump was due to our area and vet costs. However, my coworker, who is in the adjoining city had minimal increase ($5/month). That being said, this year we used $1480 of our $10,000 allowable, primarily on cytopoint and allergy immunotherapy.

I’m looking into pet insurance. My cat is 6 and has some plaque build up that my vet noted on his last exam. Since she noted some dental disease on the last exam, is it considered “a pre-existing condition” and no insurance will cover dental cleaning?