Pet Insurance Annual Limit: What It Means & Why It Matters

A better option might be to upgrade your existing plan to one with a higher maximum payout or a lower deductible amount, especially if your vet bills stem from a pet’s ongoing medical issue because it’s already covered by your insurance company. If you do switch dog insurance or cat insurance providers, be aware of potential waiting periods that could limit your pet’s access to care.

What’s the best annual limit for pet insurance?

Pet insurance companies offer a wide range of annual limits, from as low as $2,500 to $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, and beyond. Several providers also offer pet insurance with no annual limit on coverage (though they might have a maximum lifetime limit).

So, how do you choose? Ultimately, a good annual limit for pet insurance is one that gives you peace of mind by knowing you can afford to give your four-legged friend essential vet care in the event of an unfortunate and unexpected injury or illness. As an example, emergency hospitalizations typically cost several thousand dollars, while cancer treatment could easily run upward of $15,000 or more.

Generally, here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Once you hit the maximum payout, you’ll be solely responsible for vet bills until the next policy period.
• Annual limits do not rollover. For example, if you fell $3,000 below your coverage limit in a given year, you cannot roll that amount over as credit onto next year’s policy.
• In most cases, you cannot change your annual coverage limit mid-term. For example, if your pet is diagnosed with an expensive condition after the effective policy date, you cannot retroactively increase insurance coverage.
• The higher the annual limit, the higher the pet insurance premium typically will be.

If your pet is young and healthy, you might not need a high coverage limit to provide a financial safety net. But it’s impossible to predict what will happen over a year, let alone throughout your pet’s lifetime. That’s why the best pest insurance plans are flexible and allow you to adjust your policy’s annual coverage limit.

You might set a higher maximum payout for injury-prone puppies, reduce coverage throughout their healthy adulthood, then increase your pet insurance for older dogs and cats who tend to face more illness in their late years. That being said, pet health is always unpredictable — you never know when hip dysplasia in dogs or asthma in cats might occur, two chronic conditions that are both common and often expensive to treat.