Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Coverage

While looking over policy options from Trupanion and Healthy Paws, you may notice that both insurers only offer plans with unlimited annual benefits. It’s fairly common for providers to give pet parents a range of annual limits to choose from as a way to customize their coverage. This is important to keep in mind since selecting a lower limit can be a way to save on monthly premiums. Without this option, pet owners on a budget may not find affordable coverage from either provider.

Trupanion also sells all of its policies with a 90% reimbursement level, meaning you’ll have to pay for 10% of covered costs out of pocket. The only factor you can control is the annual deductible, which, to the company’s credit, is more customizable than with any competitor. Using Trupanion’s online quote tool, you can set your own deductible in $5 increments between $0 and $1,000. The lower the deductible, the more you’ll pay in premiums.

Healthy Paws, on the other hand, lets pet parents customize both their annual deductible and reimbursement level. Three options are available for each. Choose from deductibles of $100, $250, or $500 and reimbursement amounts of 70%, 80%, or 90%.

In terms of the specific veterinary services listed on their accident and illness policies, Trupanion and Healthy Paws are fairly similar. Each base policy covers the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and illnesses, although neither includes exam fees, which are the owner’s responsibility to pay out of pocket. Still, there are a few differences. While Trupanion includes dental illness coverage in its standard policy, Healthy Paws doesn't, but does offer alternative treatment coverage, which is only covered by Trupanion if you purchase a policy rider. Unlike Healthy Paws, Trupanion sells two policy riders that can be valuable if you want more control over your coverage. The first, called the Recovery and Complementary Care rider, pays for behavioral and alternative treatments like physical therapy and acupuncture.

Trupanion’s Pet Owner Assistance rider covers a wide range of costs not related to veterinary care. For example, if your pet is lost or stolen, Trupanion will pay up to $500 in advertising and reward costs to help recover them. You’ll also receive property damage liability insurance up to $25,000 and trip cancellation coverage up to $1,000. The rider offers $500 of coverage towards rewards and advertising for lost pets, and also $500 of coverage for pet boarding. If your pet passes away due to an accident, the rider will pay up to $100 for their cremation or burial.

See the table below for a side-by-side comparison of Trupanion's and Healthy Paws’ coverage details.

Covered Treatment	Trupanion	Healthy Paws
Exam fees
Procedures	√	√
Lab tests	√	√
Medication	√	√
Continued treatment	√	√
Genetic conditions	√	√
Preventive care
Microchipping
Spay/neuter surgery
Vaccinations
Dental treatment	√
Behavioral treatment	√*
Specialists	√	√
Alternative/holistic care	√*	√
Medical boarding	√	√
Cremation/burial	√*

^{* Requires purchase of the Recovery and Complementary Care rider or the Pet Owner Assistance rider.}

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Enrollment Process

As with most pet insurance companies that have fully embraced the digital age, Trupanion and Healthy Paws both provide easy online enrollment processes via a simple instant quote tool. It only takes a few minutes to enter your pet’s information, select the coverage you’d like, and purchase your policy.

Both Trupanion and Healthy Paws have maximum age limits for enrollment. With Trupanion, it’s 13 years of age; Healthy Paws cuts off new signups at 14. However, coverage is so expensive for these senior pets that purchasing a new policy wouldn’t make sense for most owners. Besides, any existing health concerns an older pet has would be considered pre-existing and therefore wouldn’t be covered by either insurer.

To screen for pre-existing conditions, Healthy Paws requires you to show proof that your pet has had a checkup recently. Pets ages 5 and younger can show an examination conducted within the past 12 months. For pets ages 6 and older, the exam must have been done within the past 30 days. If you don't have a recent exam, for pets of all ages you can get an exam within 15 days of enrollment. If no exam is submitted after 15 days, your policy will be cancelled. Trupanion doesn’t impose any similar requirement.

Once you’ve made your first premium payment, you’ll have to wait a certain amount of time before benefits go into effect. Healthy Paws has a 15-day waiting period for both injuries and illnesses. Trupanion’s waiting period is just five days for injuries, but an entire 30 days for illnesses. The chance that your pet will get sick during this time is fairly low, but if they do, it’ll be considered a pre-existing condition. Any long-term care needs resulting from the illness will never be eligible for coverage under your policy.

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Claim Filing

Filing claims is relatively easy with both Trupanion and Healthy Paws, but Trupanion offers a feature that most pet insurers don’t. The company provides direct payment to participating veterinarians, eliminating the need to pay for treatments out of pocket and wait for reimbursement. All you’ll have to do is cover your copay when you leave the vet. You can search for a participating direct-pay veterinarian using the Trupanion online portal when you sign up for coverage. If you’d rather use a vet that doesn’t participate in direct pay, you can still use your Trupanion policy to cover treatment. You’ll simply have to pay your entire bill upfront and file a claim for reimbursement with Trupanion.

Healthy Paws doesn’t offer a direct payment program, although reimbursement happens much faster than with most pet insurers. Just upload your bill to the Healthy Paws website or smartphone app. Reimbursement is typically issued within 24 business hours, but may take up to 10 days to arrive depending on the delivery method and financial institution.

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Reviews

Healthy Paws is extremely well rated, receiving top marks from most third-party reviewers. Its policy underwriter, Chubb, gets an A++ rating for financial stability from AM Best.

In contrast, Trupanion’s reviews are a bit mixed. The company’s underwriter, American Pet Insurance Company, currently isn’t rated by AM Best.

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Costs

If you need affordable pet insurance coverage, Healthy Paws offers a bit more flexibility. Policies start at a lower price point due to a wider range of customization options. Since Trupanion’s policies can only be adjusted by changing your deductible, premiums tend to be on the higher end.

However, Trupanion’s policy riders are very reasonably priced. The Pet Owner Assistance rider is a particularly good value given the variety of benefits included for just $4.95 per month regardless of your pet’s age.

At the end of the day, the only way to truly compare insurance quotes is to look at pricing for policies with equal coverage. We asked both Trupanion and Healthy Paws for the estimated cost of an accident and illness policy with no annual limit, 90% reimbursement, and a $250 annual deductible. While Healthy Paws returned a quote of $35.66 per month, Trupanion was over 50% more expensive at $54.60 per month. To get an idea of the price range you can expect from each insurer, see the table below. Keep in mind that your actual quote may be higher or lower depending on your pet’s age and breed, your geographic location, and the type of coverage you choose.

	Trupanion	Healthy Paws
	Accident and illness plan	Accident and illness plan
Dog: 1 year	$24.94 to $90.38	$20.33 to $43.08
Dog: 3 year	$27.91 to $104.15	$23.74 to $50.37
Dog: 6 year	$34.79 to $136.09	$34.11
Dog: 12 year	$50.98 to $211.26	$155.74
Cat: 1 year	$17.23 to $54.62	$8.01 to $17.04
Cat: 3 year	$19.59 to $65.56	$9.36 to $19.93
Cat: 6 year	$25.64 to $56.41	$13.74
Cat: 12 year	$41.05 to $165.16	$61.31

^{This table does not include the price of the Recovery and Complementary Care rider or the Pet Owner Assistance rider.}

Methodology

Our pet insurance reviews are designed to simplify the process of choosing the right coverage for your best friend. We first considered plan options that included deductibles, annual benefits, and copays. We then considered pricing and compared it to a similar company in terms of coverage. Finally, we sought third-party insights from reviews made with AM Best. When comparing the two side-by-side, we wanted to make sure we looked at as many similar options as possible to give you the best information about which plan is most suitable for your needs.

Learn more: Read our full Pet Insurance Review Methodology here.