Best for…
AKC Pet Insurance’s custom plan is the best option for preexisting conditions, but only after 365 days of coverage.
If your pet has an ongoing preexisting condition, AKC Pet Insurance is your best option for getting it covered. No other insurance company we considered offered coverage for incurable or chronic illnesses or for actively symptomatic curable conditions. But you need to sign up before your pet turns 9. And to benefit from this, you should get the Custom plan only, not the Basic plan.
AKC Pet Insurance will cover curable and incurable preexisting conditions after the first 365 days of coverage. Unlike every other pet insurance plan we looked at, AKC Pet Insurance will cover many preexisting conditions after a 365-day waiting period. This can even include ongoing illnesses like allergies, diabetes, and cancer, but you’ll need to double-check your policy and make sure you’ve opted into any relevant upgrades. And unlike every other company we considered, AKC Pet Insurance will cover a preexisting condition after the first year, even if your pet showed symptoms or received treatment for it during the waiting period. When I asked the company’s customer-service reps about Dave’s expensive allergy medication, they told me it would indeed be covered after a year.
There are some good add-on options. Unlike Spot and Pumpkin, AKC Pet Insurance doesn’t automatically include coverage for hereditary or congenital diseases. But for a few extra dollars a month, the company lets you add on the HereditaryPlus option, which is worth doing. The plan also doesn’t include exam fees for covered illnesses or accidents, which Spot’s and Pumpkin’s plans both do. You can also add on that coverage for another additional fee, but if you’re trying to keep your monthly premiums as low as possible, you can save the extra $10 to $20 a month and just pay for exams out of pocket as they happen.
Flaws that might actually be dealbreakers
Avoid the cheaper Basic plan. We recommend getting the company’s Custom plan only. The Basic plan is cheaper, but you’ll be subject to an “incident limit” of $500. That means the company will pay a maximum of only $500 toward a particular illness or condition “over the life of the pet.” This will negate any benefit you get from the plan’s expansive preexisting-condition coverage. It also doesn’t allow you to adjust your annual deductible, reimbursement rate, and annual limit.
You have to sign up before your pet turns 9 to qualify for illness coverage. For a new policy, if a pet is age 9 or older, the company won’t cover illnesses, only accidents. But if you already have illness coverage from AKC Pet Insurance, your coverage will continue even after your pet turns 9.
The preexisting-conditions waiting period doesn’t guarantee coverage. AKC Pet Insurance determines eligibility based on your policy after you submit a claim, and it also explicitly excludes all parasite-related conditions, preexisting or not. For hereditary diseases to be covered at all, you must have the HereditaryPlus add-on, according to an AKC pet insurance agent. Conditions tied to breeding, behavioral health, or end-of-life care can also require specific upgrades; otherwise they may be excluded, even after the waiting period, according to the agent.
The policy doesn’t cover dental illness. AKC Pet Insurance will only cover dental accidents, not illnesses, and there’s no add-on option. So if your pet develops a dental problem that’s not related to an accident, like periodontal disease, you’ll have to pay for those treatments fully out of pocket.
The policy has some unique limitations. The company will cover prescription food only if it’s the “sole treatment” for an illness. So if Dave needed to go on a prescription diet for his allergies, in addition to his allergy pills, the medication would be covered but not the food. And I noticed a clause in the company’s sample policy that said it will cover only one instance of illness or injury — for the lifetime of your pet — resulting from what it considers to be a repetitive activity. The examples it gave were “foreign body ingestion, dogfights and toxin ingestion.” So if your pet likes to eat street treats or regularly scarfs up household toxins, Spot, Pumpkin, or Nationwide might be a better fit.
Sample quotes (individual premiums will vary based on a number of factors, including your zip code)
Dog: 5-year-old male Labrador mix in New Haven, Connecticut
Deductible: $1,000
Reimbursement rate: 80%
Annual maximum payout: $10,000 annual
Base plan premium: $59 a month
Cat: 5-year-old female, domestic shorthair, in New Haven, Connecticut
Deductible: $1,000
Reimbursement rate: 80%
Annual maximum payout: $10,000 annual
Base plan premium: $28 a month
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