We’re in Austin and have an almost 11-year-old domestic short-hair neutered cat who is generally very healthy, except for occasional UTIs. We’ve had Pets Best insurance for about 4-5 years, and they’ve been good, but they just raised our premiums by over 40%, from $71/mo to $100/mo. They also don’t cover his UTIs because they consider it a ‘pre-existing’ condition. We started looking into other coverage options and found two companies—Fetch and Spot—that offer to waive the pre-existing condition rule with certain conditions.
Fetch: No treatment for a UTI in the previous 12 months.
Spot: No treatment for this condition in the 180 days before the policy starts.
The quotes we got were: Fetch - $85/mo and Spot - $77/mo, both with 90% reimbursement, a $250 annual deductible, and a $5,000 max annual limit. We plan to switch to one of these since our cat hasn’t had a UTI in over a year, thanks to a change in diet. Hopefully, this helps someone else!
I feel like this sounds like I’m promoting them, but check out Physicians Mutual pet insurance. They also cover pre-existing conditions if there hasn’t been any occurrence in the last 12 months. I checked their rate filings in my state (NC), and cats have a lower cost compared to dogs. For example, a Great Dane is about 1.5x the base rate, a small dog is 0.6x, and most cats are around 0.5x. Do your research, but they’re worth considering. I recently switched to them from Embrace after looking into almost every company in the US.
@Shan
This might sound a bit forward, but do you have a background in insurance? How did you compare all these rates? It’s overwhelming for those of us who aren’t familiar, especially with the differences based on state. Could you share any pointers for beginners?
@Hayes
I’ve been in the life & health insurance industry for about 15 years, so no worries! I learned that a private equity firm acquired about 40% of the pet insurance market during COVID, which includes companies like Embrace and Pets Best. That likely explains the rate increases—they need to recoup their investment.
Physicians Mutual stood out because they’re a mutual company, meaning policyholders are the shareholders, and you even get voting rights. They still need to make a profit, but their motives are a bit different from private equity firms. I’m not saying they won’t have rate increases, but I’m betting they won’t be as steep.
I found a ‘pet insurance association’ with all the companies operating in the USA and ran quotes for all of them (about 25 in total). Physicians Mutual had the best prices, and then I checked their rate filings through my state’s Department of Insurance to understand how they price things.
It’s always a risk, and who knows if a big player might pull out of the market one day, but I feel good about my choice.
P.S. I’m not an actuary, just an MBA with a love for deep dives into data!