Insuring your pet? You should know about these changes to Florida law

Ron Hurtibise, South Florida Sun-SentinelSouth Florida Sun Sentinel

As vet bills skyrocket, more and more pet owners are turning to insurance programs to prevent their pets’ surprise illness from becoming a financial hardship.

But the devil is in the details, and complaints have surfaced that procedures and care that consumers thought were covered by the policies they purchased actually weren’t covered.

A new law taking effect in Florida on Jan. 1 aims to provide pet owners with clarity about pet insurance products they might be considering purchasing to cover accidents and illnesses.

The bill “creates an efficient, effective regulatory framework for pet insurance that benefits consumers, empowers regulators, and ensures the marketplace operates fairly,” state Sen. Nick DiCeglie, a Pinellas County Republican, told the Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee in March. “This bill is good for consumers, industry participants and the pet insurance marketplace.”

While pet insurance has been available in Florida for years, policies have become increasingly complex, imposing waiting times for injury, illness and orthopedic care, and exclusions for preexisting, congenital and hereditary conditions, according to a Senate analysis of the bill.

In addition, policyholders have alleged that agents misled them by selling wellness programs as pet insurance.

The law will prohibit marketing of wellness programs as pet insurance, require disclosure of exclusions for chronic conditions, require agents and brokers to undergo special training, and allow consumers to cancel their pet insurance policies within 30 days if dissatisfied.

Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, the law classifies pet insurance as property insurance and specifies that it’s not subject to laws that regulate life or health insurance.

The law is patterned after a model law written in 2022 by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and enacted in 15 other states, including California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Louisiana, said John Fielding, legislative counsel for the North American Pet Health Insurance Association, in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The trade association, also known as NAPHIA, provided data used by the commissioners association. A NAPHIA lobbyist showed up in Tallahassee to speak in support of the bill.

A growing market

The association’s 2025 state of the industry report estimates that the pet insurance industry now rakes in $5.2 billion a year in premiums, a 21% increase since 2023.

Florida represents 6.3% of premiums paid, making it the country’s third-largest pet insurance market.

But while the number of insured pets has increased each year since 2020, there’s room for much more growth, according to statistics cited in the report.

The 7.03 million pets insured in the United States and Canada this year are just a fraction of the country’s pet population. Just 5.5% of 89.7 million dogs and 2% of 73.8 million cats are insured, the report states.

And as with health and property insurance, consumers are experiencing cost hikes for pet insurance, according to the industry website Insurance Business.

Florida insurance regulators recently approved rate increases averaging 9.25% for multiple pet insurers, the website reported. It quoted an unnamed spokesperson for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation as saying the hikes were needed to cover the cost of veterinary service costs, which are rising faster than general inflation.

A Senate analysis of the new law posted in April cited monthly insurance costs for dogs of $52 to $54 for three of four pet insurers. A fourth charged $73. Coverage of cats ranged from $22 to $37, the analysis said.

In a 2023 survey of 2,061 pet owners, Consumer Reports found they paid $47 per month for pet insurance, deductibles that ranged from $0 to $1,000 or more, and typical copays of 20%.

Pet insurance, the magazine concluded, was not always a good value and many customers reported breaking even after getting paid for claims.

What the new law does

It’s understandable that consumers can be confused by differences between wellness programs and pet insurance.

“Pet insurance covers accidents and illnesses,” Fielding said. Wellness programs, he said, “covers things like checkups, vaccinations, nail clippings and teeth cleanings. Some insurance policies will cover things like that, but it’s generally not part of the insurance.”

Florida’s law bans marketing wellness programs as pet insurance and requiring consumers to purchase wellness programs as a prerequisite to purchasing pet insurance. It also prohibits wellness program costs and terms that are not “separate and identifiable” from pet insurance policies as well as wellness program products or coverages that duplicate those in a pet insurance policy.

Under terms of the new law, pet insurance agents are required to disclose exclusions of coverage due to a chronic condition, a congenital anomaly or disorder, a hereditary disorder, or a preexisting condition.

Disclosure is also required for policy provisions that limit coverage through a waiting period, a deductible, coinsurance requirement, or an annual or lifetime limit.

Insurers must also disclose whether coverage is reduced or premiums increased based on claim histories, a pet’s age, or change in geographic location of the policyholder.

Insurers also must disclose more information about how they determine benefit schedules and claim payments.

The new law also requires pet insurers to ensure their agents are appropriately trained on terms and conditions of their pet insurance products.

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071 or by email at [email protected].