Trupanion Pet Insurance

Trupanion is there to help you cope with those situations you can't prepare for. That's why its pet insurance policy covers both illnesses and injuries while dispensing with predictable routine care cover. Not to mention the extremely generous 90% you'll get back on all new illnesses and injuries for life. That's right - there are no annual benefit limits, meaning that your pet can get all the care it needs, when they need it.

What policies does Trupanion offer?

Trupanion offers a single policy that covers the following:

• Injuries. Like snake bites or broken limbs.
• Illnesses. Like cancer, diabetes or hip dysplasia.

It will reimburse you for 90% of eligible treatment costs no matter how high your bills get since there is no benefit limit at all.

Additional benefits

There are a handful of benefits that are automatically included in your policy and a few others that require an additional fee.

Automatically included benefits

• Vet direct pay. You can have your claim approved and your invoice paid on the spot if you visit a partner vet or hospital.
• Dental cover. You'll be covered for dental illness as you get a dental exam once a year, as long as the illness isn't a pre-existing one that occurred before buying the policy.

Optional benefits

• Recovery & Complementary Care. This covers your pet for a range of natural therapies including rehab, acupuncture, chiro, behavioural modification therapy, naturopathy and more.
• Pet Owner Assistance Package. This protects you from non-vet expenses related to your pet like boarding fees, lost pet rewards, damage to someone else's property, burial fees and holiday cancellation costs if your pet gets sick or dies.

What isn't covered?

• Pre-existing conditions. This is any illness or condition that arose before you took your pet's policy or up to 30 days after taking out your policy. Injuries that occur within five days of taking out your policy are also considered pre-existing conditions and won't be covered.
• Illness or injuries due to repetitive behaviour. If your pet engages in repetitive and specific behaviour, like eating fabric or chasing after bees, and this occurs more than once in an 18-month period, it won't be covered.
• Hip dysplasia if there was evidence before you took out your policy. Even if the hip dysplasia wasn't specifically a pre-existing condition or noted in the veterinary records, it will be excluded from cover if there was evidence of its potential manifestation before you took out your policy. This also applies to a few other conditions like glaucoma, elbow dysplasia, intervertebral disc disease and cataracts.
• Routine and preventative care. This includes desexing, microchipping, vaccinations, flea control, deworming and health exams.
• Lack of care. You won't be covered for any illness or injury that's the result of you mistreating your pet or otherwise not caring for them properly.
• Commercial uses. You won't be covered for any illness or injury that arises from using your dog for commercial purposes like breeding, racing, pig hunting and guarding. Guide dogs and assistance dogs are exempt from this exclusion.
• Unauthorised treatments. You won't be covered if you pursue treatment not recommended by your vet. You also won't be covered for complications that could arise from such treatment.
• Treatment outside of Australia. This policy is only valid on treatments your pet receives in Australia. It is void elsewhere.
• Unvaccinated pets. If you don't get vaccines recommended by your doctor, you won't be covered for illnesses that could have been prevented by those vaccines.

Why should you consider Trupanion pet insurance?

If you want a no-nonsense policy that offers the most cover you can find in Australia, Trupanion could be for you.

Although it does away with a few supplementary benefits that other brands offer, like routine care and overseas cover, the unlimited benefits mean it protects you from what could really hurt: ongoing and extensive medical expenses due to illness and injury.

It's a policy that's very easy to understand and obviously dedicated to the health of your pet.

Here's what sets it apart from other policies on the market:

• It pays 90% of eligible treatment costs. Other insurers pay anywhere from 75–85%.
• It has no benefit limit. The most other insurers will pay towards your pet's treatments is $20,000 per year.
• The optional extras are unique and helpful. Instead of offering cover for boring and expected expenses like routine care, Trupanion offers extras that aid your pet's recovery through the Recovery & Complementary Care package, and help you avoid further unexpected costs through the Pet Owner Assistance Package.
• You can newly insure an older pet. Trupanion offers illness cover for pets up to the age of 14 years, which is very uncommon. Most insurers only offer accident cover for older pets unless they've had consistent cover that has been in place since well before that.

Steps to file a claim with Trupanion

If you visit a vet that's in Trupanion's network, the vet can process your claim and have the invoice paid right there on the spot. However, if you do have to make a claim yourself, there are two easy ways you can do it:

Some final questions you might have

• What is the coverage period for my pet?

  When you first sign up, you’ll be covered for 12 months. As long as you renew every year after that, you can keep your pet insured for life.

• What are the age requirements for cover?

  You can insure your pet anytime after it turns 8 weeks old until the age of 14. As long as you keep your policy current, you can insure your pet for the rest of its life. If your pet is over 14 and you haven't purchased a policy, it will be too late to buy cover.

• Does Trupanion provide cover for all accidents?

  Your policy will cover you for any accident as long as it's a single, specific event that's unpredictable and unintentional. That means it won't cover you if you kick your cat or if your dog consistently provokes a den of snakes leading to repeated injury.

• What's considered a pre-existing condition?

  A pre-existing condition is a documented medical condition that occurred prior to you taking out your policy. In some cases, as in hip dysplasia, your pet only has to show premature signs of the condition for it to be considered a pre-existing condition.

• What's the applicable waiting period?

  Your policy won't cover any illnesses that arise within 30 days of buying your policy and those illnesses will be considered pre-existing. It won't cover any injuries within five days of buying your policy and those injuries and ongoing complications will also be considered pre-existing.

• What's considered a bilateral condition?

  This is a condition that can happen on both sides of the body, for example a cruciate injury. If your pet developed the condition on one side of the body before you bought the policy, many insurers will consider the same problem occurring on the opposite side of the body a pre-existing condition even if it happens years later.

  Trupanion has a list of such conditions in its exclusions and this list includes luxating patella, glaucoma, elbow dysplasia, cataracts and several others.