About Trupanion Pet Insurance

One of the most reliable companies in the pet insurance industry, Trupanion offers insurance policies that can cover most of your pet’s emergency needs.

Trupanion is a Canadian pet insurance provider founded in 2000. They acquired the American Pet Insurance Company, responsible for underwriting U.S policies, in 2007. Trupanion started offering its pet insurance policies to the United States market due to this acquisition. They went public in 2014 and raised $81 million with their initial public offering. As of today, Trupanion has headquarters located in Seattle, Washington, and offers its policies in all 50 US States as well as Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico.

Trupanion’s insurance plan has no policy limits and offers 90%reimbursement. Their generous policy terms provide high coverage levels for pet owners who want accident and illness protection. Trupanion only offers one policy with very little room for customization. Pet owners who are only looking for a general type of coverage instead of specific needs for their healthy pets might find this a good option. When you sign up with Trupanion, you get some added perks such as direct reimbursement, 24-hour access to customer service, and price lock on your pet’s policy premiums.

Every insurance plan from Trupanion has no annual payout limits. Whatever policy you sign up for, you don’t have to worry about coverage running out for your pet. Policies can also come with $0 deductibles meaning there are no out-of-pocket expenses before insurance coverage starts.

All Trupanion insurance plans will reimburse 90% of the cost of treatments covered. Unlike many pet insurance providers that raise policy premiums as pets get older, Trupanion guarantees that your premiums will stay the same despite your pet aging. For questions and concerns, they have a customer support hotline available any time of the day for seven days.

Trupanion’s fixed plans with 90% reimbursement and no annual limits provide excellent coverage but it also comes with higher premiums. This type of plan might not be ideal for pet owners who want to pay lower premiums. And although it’s normal for providers to exclude preventive care in their core plans, Trupanion lacks optional riders to cover even routine care.

Trupanion’s premiums are set to be paid monthly and they do not offer other options for payment. Aside from not having other options for payment terms, they also lack discount offers for people with multiple pets or members of the military.

Plans and Pricing

Plans

Trupanion has one core plan to cover both dogs and cats. Only the annual deductible can be changed in the core plan. You can set your deductible to $0 up to $1,000.

For pet owners who want more coverage, Trupanion offers two policy riders. One is Recovery and Complementary Care. This provides coverage for non-clinical procedures including behavioral modification, physical therapy, and homeopathy. Another is the Pet Owner Assistance which covers various unexpected costs such as advertising and rewards for a missing pet, property damage liability, and burial or cremation if the pet dies because of an accident.

None of the riders or the core plan from Trupanion provides coverage for preventive care. If you are looking for this specific type of coverage for your pet, you might have to look at another provider. There are other pet insurance companies that offer wellness and preventive care riders to cover services such as checkups, microchipping, vaccination, and spay or neuter surgery.

Below is a summary of the treatments and services covered by a Trupanion base plan, Pet Owner Assistance rider, and Recovery and Complementary Care rider.

Treatment Covered	Base Plan	Pet Owner Assistance	Recovery & Corresponding Care
Procedure
Lab tests
Medications
On-going treatment
Genetic conditions
Dental Treatment
Specialists
Behavorial Treatment
Holistic/Alternative Care
Medical boarding
Burial/ Cremation

Pricing

The price of your pet’s insurance policy will vary based on the deductible option. Despite offering 90% coverage and no annual payout limits for all their policies, Trupanion’s cheapest policies are still comparable to other prices from providers who only offer 70% reimbursement with their lower-tier policies. The higher-end plans from Trupanion do become more expensive when you compare with other providers who offer similar terms.

We’ve outlined below the price range of Trupanion’s insurance plans.

Trupanion has a 5-day waiting period for injuries and a 30-day waiting period for illnesses. It should be noted that these are longer compared to what other insurance providers offer. When you sign up for a policy with Trupanion, you need to wait 5 or 30 days before you can take advantage of the benefits from your policy. What’s good is that orthopedic conditions are covered after the 30-day waiting period, unlike other providers that enforce a waiting period of 6 months.

Exclusions and Coverage Limits

Exclusions

It’s not surprising that Trupanion excludes pre-existing conditions from their coverage since almost no insurance provider will cover pre-existing conditions. Conditions that appeared within the waiting period or in the 18 months before enrollment are considered pre-existing. It also includes events that happened before the benefits became effective. For instance, if your cat got into an accident before the start of your coverage but symptoms of injury only showed up several weeks after, treatment for the injury will not be covered by the policy.

As mentioned earlier, preventive care is not included in any Trupanion policy. Exam fees are also excluded from policy coverage. If you check in your pet to the veterinarian for an emergency, Trupanion will cover the procedures, test, and medication eligible but the examination fees will be handled by the owner. You can view the sample policy for a complete list of exclusions.

Coverage Limits

When it comes to coverage limits, Trupanion is among the best providers since they have no annual or lifetime payout limits. Not many pet insurance providers can meet this offer.

Claims and Customer Service

Trupanion allows pet owners to set up a direct payment system. If your veterinarian agrees to this system, you’ll get lower out-of-pocket expenses since Trupanion will handle the rest of the costs. The direct payment system is a more efficient and budget-friendly method than traditional reimbursement schemes. Without a direct payment system, you’ll need to prepare the full cost of the veterinarian’s services, file a claim, and wait for the reimbursement.

However, if you do want to go old school, you can choose to file a claim yourself. Log into your account and submit the claim with a copy of your invoice. You can also send it through snail mail, but that will take much longer.

For questions and concerns about your policy or claims you submitted, you can contact their customer support via email, phone, and live chat. You can call customer support at 855-210-849 which should be available 24/7 so you can reach for help anytime your pet gets into an emergency. The website has a live chat channel.

Third-Party Rating

Trupanion’s insurance underwriter, the American Pet Insurance Company, does not have any rating from major credit rating companies like Moody and Best. They do have an A or Exceptional rating from Demotech, a financial analysis company that evaluates the financial stability of insurance companies. This is rating suggests that the insurance company has a 97% chance of financial viability 18 after an economic downturn.

Unfortunately, it seems that there have been issues relating to selling Trupanion’s policies. There were two government actions against Trupanion within the past two years as noted by the Better Business Bureau. One is in California and the other is in Washington. Both government actions implicated Trupanion for their failure to ensure that they have licensed sales representatives.

There were also three fines that added up to $500,000 within the past five years. The violations Trupanion faced are mostly involved with third-party sellers. If you purchase an insurance policy directly from Trupanion, you won’t have any problem with agents without proper licenses.

Conclusion

Trupanion offers some of the best policy coverage and limits in the insurance industry with low premiums that many pet owners can afford. However, the lack of customization and options for routine and preventive care coverage might be inconvenient for some customers. They do give pet owners the chance to choose lower deductibles but this only leads to higher premiums that exceed their competitor’s prices.

If you’re only looking for an insurance policy to cover unexpected cases, Trupanion’s plans are a great option. But if you want more specific types of coverage for your pets or you want a policy to cover ongoing care, you will not find it from Trupanion.