The Complete Guide to Pet Insurance: How Trupanion Helps Remove Financial Barriers to Care

Pet parents want nothing more than to keep their dogs and cats healthy. But the reality is that veterinary costs can quickly become overwhelming, often causing advanced or life-saving treatment to feel out of reach. This is where pet insurance comes in and can be a big help. Pet insurance offers financial safeguarding, helping families avoid having to choose between their budget and their pet’s wellbeing.

This guide explains how pet insurance works, why it matters, and how Trupanion’s real-time payment solution is helping to remove financial barriers to care.

What is pet insurance?

Pet insurance is a form of insurance coverage that helps pet parents pay for unexpected veterinary costs. When a pet becomes sick or injured, this insurance covers eligible expenses so families can focus on their pet’s health instead of what's in their bank account.

Pet insurance protects your budget from large, unexpected veterinary bills in the same way that car or homeowners insurance protects you from the costs associated with sudden accidents or damage.

Unlike pet wellness plans, pet insurance:

• Doesn’t cover routine care like vaccines or checkups (these are usually out-of-pocket).
• Can work on either a reimbursement or direct-pay model.
• Exists to help cover unpredictable events like illness, surgery, emergencies, or chronic conditions.

Why is pet insurance important?

Modern veterinary medicine is incredible, and pets today can receive life-extending, advanced care such as:

• Chemotherapy and targeted cancer treatment
• MRI and CT imaging
• Orthopedic surgeries like cruciate ligament repair
• Regenerative medicine like stem cell therapy
• Long-term management of allergies, diabetes, heart disease, or kidney disease

These treatments can enhance, extend, and even save lives, but they often come with a price tag that many families cannot manage.

Examples of average veterinary costs:*

• IVDD – $5,170
• CCL Rupture – $5,094
• Lymphoma – $5,310
• Broken Nail or Torn Claw – $541

*Based on averages of claimed amounts from Trupanion USA internal invoice data from Jan. 1, 2025 – Aug. 31, 2025

Without insurance, these bills can end up forcing families to make heartbreaking decisions. Pet insurance provides peace of mind by helping reduce the likelihood that cost will be the deciding factor in a pet’s care.

How does pet insurance work?

At a high level, pet insurance follows a simple process:

1. Choose a provider and a plan → Pet parents pay a monthly premium for coverage.
2. Go to the veterinarian → When a pet needs treatment, the veterinarian often provides an estimate.
3. Insurance is applied → Depending on the provider, the bill is either reimbursed later or paid directly by the insurer.
4. The pet parent pays their share → This may include a deductible, coinsurance, or any items not covered by insurance.

How is Trupanion different?

Most pet insurance companies require you to:

• Pay the full bill upfront
• Submit a claim
• Wait days, weeks or longer for reimbursement

This system can still leave families scrambling to come up with thousands of dollars at the time of care, which in many cases, doesn’t actually solve the problem of care being financially out of reach for some pet parents.

Trupanion helps eliminates that barrier. With VetDirect Pay™, Trupanion can pay veterinarians directly at checkout. That means:

• Hospital invoices can be paid instantly.
• Pet parents only pay their portion (coinsurance or deductible).
• Care can begin immediately, with less financial hesitation.

For example: One Trupanion member’s dog required a $12,000+ spinal surgery. With our VetDirect Pay solution, the hospital was paid directly in real time, and the pet parent only paid about $1,200 at checkout. Without this solution, the member said that “there is absolutely no way I could have come up with that kind of cash.”

Why not just save money in a pet fund?

Some families consider putting aside the equivalent of a premium into a savings account instead of paying for insurance. While saving is smart, it’s rarely enough to cover actual costs.

• Saving $100/month for three years = $3,600.
• A single foreign body ingestion vet bill could cost over $4,000*.

*Based on averages of claimed amounts from Trupanion USA internal invoice data from Jan. 1, 2025 – Aug. 31, 2025

Insurance pools the risk across many pet parents, ensuring that the funds are available when you need them the most. For some, this might be the only way to access high-cost care without facing significant financial hardship.

When should you get pet insurance?

The best time to enroll is when your pet is young and healthy. Here’s why:

• Puppies and kittens typically have no pre-existing conditions, so coverage is comprehensive.
• Waiting until a pet is older often means they’ve already developed conditions that may not be covered.
• Getting coverage for your pet early on provides crucial long-term protection, especially since vet costs tend to rise as pets get older. But with Trupanion, you don't have to worry—your costs won't go up just because your pet ages or needs more care.

Jaxon – Member since 2021

“Trupanion supported us since he was 6 weeks old. Jaxon got sick and had to be rushed to emergency vet. Trupanion covered a bulk of the cost after the claim was submitted.”

How common is cost as a barrier to care?

According to veterinary professionals, cost is one of the biggest obstacles families face when making care decisions.¹

• Many pet parents decline treatment due to high bills. According to a 2023 Trupanion-led veterinary survey, pet parents would stop treatment if the bill reached $1,500.
• Others face economic euthanasia or surrendering their pet.
• Veterinary teams also feel the effects, experiencing high rates of compassion fatigue and burn out from seeing pets consistently miss out on life-saving care.

Trupanion’s VetDirect Pay™ real-time payment solution is designed to reduce this stress for everyone involved—pets, families, and veterinary staff.

FAQs about pet insurance

Is pet insurance worth it?

Yes. Even if you go years without major claims, one emergency can more than cover the investment. For example, a single $10,000 surgery would take nearly a decade of self-saving at $100/month to cover.

Does pet insurance cover pre-existing conditions?

No. Like auto insurance, coverage applies to new, unexpected events. Conditions that existed before enrollment or during waiting periods are excluded.

How is pet insurance different from a wellness plan?

Wellness plans cover preventive care such as vaccines and checkups. Pet insurance covers unexpected illnesses and injuries, which is often the most expensive part of veterinary care.

Can any veterinarian accept Trupanion?

Yes, any licensed veterinarian can work with Trupanion. Practices already using our Veterinary Portal software can submit claims and receive payment directly—often in seconds. If your veterinarian doesn’t currently work with Trupanion, they can learn more by requesting a demo. Vets who don’t use our software can still file for reimbursement using our online portal, Veterinary Portal Lite.

If your vet doesn’t yet work with Trupanion, you can still use Trupanion by submitting your claim for reimbursement, over 75% of which we process within 24 hours or less.

What if I never use my pet insurance?

That’s actually good news—your pet stayed healthy! Just like with car insurance, the goal is peace of mind. If you never need to use it, you’ve avoided the stress of a major veterinary emergency.

Key takeaways

• Veterinary costs can reach thousands of dollars for serious conditions.
• Pet insurance is designed to cover those unexpected, high-cost events.
• Unlike human health insurance, it functions more like auto insurance.
• Trupanion’s real-time payment solution removes the reimbursement barrier, helping families say “yes” to care.
• The best time to enroll is when pets are young and healthy.

¹ “52% of U.S. Pet Owners Skipped or Declined Veterinary Care” by Zach Hrynowski and Justin Lall