Pre-existing Conditions for Pet Insurance
One of the most common issues we help pet parents understand is how pre-existing conditions work on a pet insurance policy. Plus you should know that even if your pet has a pre-existing condition there's a good chance your pet can still get pet insurance.
What is a Pre-existing Condition?
A pre-existing condition is an illness or injury that happened before your policy's start date or within the waiting period.
Because insurance is designed to protect you against unexpected things, most companies won't cover anything that is pre-existing.
If your pet has a condition that neither you nor your veterinarian are aware of then it is not a pre-existing condition.
How Pet Insurance Companies Handle Pre-existing Conditions
In general, pet insurance companies exclude any health issue that appeared before the start of your policy, even if the condition has not yet been clearly diagnosed or is in remission. These exclusions may be temporary or permanent and some companies allow coverage for the condition to start again after an incident-free period of time has passed.
But it gets more complicated. At renewal, some companies reset the pre-existing conditions and cut off coverage for chronic illnesses. This coverage is less expensive than policies that cover chronic conditions as long as you continue to pay your premiums but might not be what you expected from your pet insurance policy.
How Does Embrace Handle Pre-existing Conditions?
At Embrace, we will not cover health conditions that occurred during the year before your policy first started or chronic conditions you already knew about when you signed up.
We may remove exclusions if the condition has not reappeared for a year. We also give you the option of choosing continuing care coverage so that your pet is always protected against chronic conditions.
See some examples of how we handle pre-existing conditions.