Compare accident and illness pet insurance
A guide to accident and illness pet insurance
Updated 2 May 2024
Expert tips on accident and illness pet insurance
Compare the Market’s pet insurance expert, Adrian Taylor, offers these handy tips for Australian pet owners taking out insurance for their furry friends.
Adrian Taylor
Executive General Manager – General Insurance
Insure your pet early
Most insurers will cover pets as early as eight weeks old. Taking out accident and illness pet insurance early can be a good idea if you’re worried about future vet bills, especially given the mischievous nature of young puppies and kittens.
Compare your options
Coverage for pet accidents and illnesses can differ across policies and insurers, and some policies may offer higher benefits than others. You should compare your options when taking out insurance to ensure you’re getting a good deal for your pet’s needs.
Tailor your policy to suit your needs
Accident and illness policies often come with features and benefits that you can adjust to you and your pet’s needs. This can include choosing a policy excess (which can bring down your premiums) and adding optional extras to your policy for further cover.
What is accident and illness pet insurance?
As a mid-range level of cover, pet insurance for accidents and illnesses can help manage unexpected veterinary bills if your pet gets sick, contracts a disease or is injured. The main benefit is that some insurers may cover the majority of the bill, depending on your chosen benefit percentage, the policy excess and the total cost of the bill. However, only some eligible vet bills are covered.
What does accident and illness pet insurance cover?
As the name suggests, this policy will only cover vet expenses for accidents and illnesses. However, this is still crucial because some conditions can be costly to pay for without the help of insurance.
While coverage can differ between policies and providers, some common conditions that are usually covered by accident and illness pet insurance can include:
- Snake bites
- Cruciate ligament conditions
- Tick paralysis
- Accidental injuries caused by car accidents, burns or allergic reactions
- Cancer
- Skin, ear and eye conditions
- Wounds, cuts and lacerations
- Ligament and tendon injuries
- Broken and fractured bones.
Other expenses and services that may be covered by your accident and illness pet insurance can include emergency boarding for your pet, euthanasia and vet consultations relating to the policy’s specified illnesses and injuries.
Always remember to check your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to find out exactly what you’re covered for, and the Target Market Determination (TMD) to see whether a policy is suitable for your needs.
Routine care
Routine care is an optional extra that, when added to your accident and illness policy, can cover regular check-ups that keep your pet healthy, such as:
- Desexing
- Microchipping
- Vaccinations
- Training for behavioural problems
- Alternative therapies
- Prescription diets
- Teeth cleaning and treatment for dental illnesses.
How it works
How much does accident and illness pet insurance cost?
Pet insurance premiums will vary greatly between insurers and their product. Several factors may impact the cost of pet insurance, including, but not limited to:
- Your pet’s age and breed
- Your chosen annual limit
- Your benefit percentage
- Policy excess
- Optional extras (if any).
An easy way to determine what it’ll cost to insure your pet is to use our comparison service to compare the cover and price of a range of pet insurance products in just minutes.
Can I cancel my accident and illness pet insurance at any time?
The great thing about pet insurance is that you can cancel anytime. Depending on your insurer, you may be refunded the unused portion of your premiums.
You’ll find that pet insurance policies come with a cooling-off period, which is the time after you purchase pet insurance in which you can cancel it without incurring any fees and charges (provided you haven’t yet made a claim). The length of a cooling-off period varies from insurer to insurer but typically ranges from 14-30 days. The specific details of your cooling-off period will be outlined in your insurer’s PDS.
Things to watch out for with accident and illness pet insurance
Most policies will have an excess you’ll need to pay or contribute to on all or most claims, depending on the insurer. Pet insurance then covers a percentage of the vet bill after any excess is deducted, which is called the benefit percentage and ranges from 60% to 100% of the bill. Some insurers will apply the benefit percentage before deducting the excess, while others will do so after.
There are also some additional things to be mindful of when it comes to accident and illness pet insurance.
Claim limits
Accident and illness pet insurance typically has an annual benefit limit between $10,000 and $15,000. However, some policies can have much lower limits, while some can be higher. This will depend on your level of cover, insurer and your pet’s age, breed and pre-existing medical conditions (in any). All policies have exclusions and conditions, and most have sub-limits that reduce the total amount you can claim for certain conditions and treatments in any policy period.
For example, your policy may include a $10,000 annual limit and have a $500 sub-limit for skin conditions. Once you claim up to the sub-limit for skin conditions, you probably won’t be able to claim any more for skin conditions, but you could claim up to $9,500 for other unrelated conditions.
Age limits
Depending on the insurance provider, there may be minimum and maximum age limits. Generally, you can get an insurance policy for your pet once they are eight weeks old. If your pet is nine years old or over, you may not be able to purchase a new policy for them.
Many insurers will cover your pet for life when you insure them between the ages of eight weeks and nine years, as long as there are no breaks in cover.
Exclusions
There will be exclusions with every policy, but these will differ depending on your insurance provider. Some common exclusions include pre-existing conditions, dental care and elective treatments.
As for congenital conditions (conditions that your pet was born with, such as a cleft palate, dwarfism or extra vertebrae), insurers will consider these in various ways. Some may provide cover, while others may not. If your pet has one of these conditions, you should check with your chosen insurer to ensure you understand the cover that is included in the policy.
There also are genetic predispositions or conditions that your pet may have a greater risk of getting because of their breed or genetic makeup, such as hip dysplasia, hypothyroidism or early-onset cataracts. Some insurance providers won’t cover genetic predispositions, while others may cover some conditions and have restrictions on other conditions.
Meet our pet insurance expert, Adrian Taylor
As Executive General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor knows that dogs and cats get themselves into all sorts of mischief. One part of Adrian’s work is to help empower consumers to understand how pet insurance can help save them from exorbitant vet bills when their pet gets injured or falls ill.