A French Bulldog puppy in Florida: 15 years of premiums by brand

This is a model, not a real story. A male French Bulldog is insured in Florida before his first birthday (ZIP 33545, north of Tampa). The plan has no annual limit, a $1,000 deductible and 90% reimbursement. The owner renews with the same insurer every year for 15 years. Every price comes from the rate tables each insurer filed in Florida, and the site recalculates them at every build. Discounts are left out; monthly payment fees are in.

For the same cover, the most expensive brand charges almost 2.5 times as much as the cheapest: $81,645 at Pumpkin against $33,190 at Pets Best at today’s approved rates. If rates also rise 10% a year, the totals become $218,129 against $86,804. Trupanion, Embrace, Fetch, Figo, Healthy Paws, MetLife and Nationwide are missing because we do not have their Florida rate tables yet.

What drives the differences

The age curve. Most insurers price by the dog’s current age, so the premium rises with every birthday even when rates stay the same. In Independence American’s V4 rate manual (filing 26-024273: Pumpkin, Spot, ASPCA) the age factor is 0.796 for a puppy. It drops to 0.706 at two, then climbs: 1.338 at seven, 2.316 at ten, 3.229 at fourteen. Pets Best (26-026451) goes from 0.9951 to 4.4799 at twelve. Lemonade (26-034247) charges a puppy 1.20, then 1.00 from one to three, and reaches 5.0095 at twelve. From age nine, Lemonade’s factors include a 16.5% load; the filing’s actuarial memorandum says it applies to renewals only.

The tenure factor. Only the V4 program charges for tenure: the longer you stay, the more you pay, about 3% a year, up to a factor of 1.529 after fourteen years. Pets Best and Lemonade have no such charge. Age and tenure together raise Pumpkin’s premium from $164.01 a month in the first year to $1,006.84 at fourteen, 6.1 times as much.

The age cap. Pets Best and Lemonade stop raising the age factor after twelve. For the last three years their price stays flat: $345.98 a month at Pets Best and $544.13 at Lemonade. The V4 table has no cap: its factor rises every year, up to 6.234 at age 30 and over. Over 15 years, whether there is a cap matters more than any difference in service: at Pumpkin the last six years cost about $56,200 and the first nine about $25,400.

The base rate and the channel. Pumpkin, Spot and ASPCA use the same tables with different base rates: $112.95, $98.06 and $105.94. For ASPCA the site uses the base rate of the PTZ sales channel. That is why Spot is about 13% cheaper than Pumpkin at every age. The gap comes from the October 2026 increase, which the insurer set for each channel separately: Pumpkin got +31.31% although its own calculation called for +50.14%, Spot +12.53% and PTZ +12.85%.

The plan factors. Insurers price the same plan very differently. V4 multiplies the price by 1.804 for no annual limit and by 0.564 for a $1,000 deductible. Pets Best multiplies by 1.2075 for 90% with no limit, by 0.4147 for a $1,000 deductible and by 1.2384 for its Elite options (exam fees, drugs and rehabilitation). On top of that, Pets Best applies a French Bulldog breed factor of 2.1778. At Lemonade, a $1,000 deductible, 90% and no limit together give a factor of 1.0554. We added Lemonade’s vet visit fee option, $123 a year, so that exam fees are covered as at the other brands. In October 2026 Lemonade’s online quote in Florida offered limits only up to $100,000; at that limit the factor is 0.8783.

The ZIP code. Pets Best’s factor for ZIPs starting with 335 is 0.7351. It lowers the price here; elsewhere it might not. Lemonade’s factor of 0.864 for 33545 is not in its filed ZIP table. We worked it out from a Lemonade online quote, so treat Lemonade’s figures as approximate.

How realistic are the increase columns

The first column assumes rates never change again. No insurer in the table has ever done that. The latest approved increases in Florida:

• Pumpkin: +31.31% from 1 October 2026 (26-024273);
• Pets Best: +24.4% from 2 September 2026, although the company’s own calculation called for +60.5% (26-026451);
• Lemonade: +22.0% from 18 November 2026 (26-034247).

The 10% column is closer to reality than the first. When a program has raised rates by less than its own calculation called for, even 15% is not the bleakest case. Why prices keep rising is in why pet insurance prices rise.

What is not in the table

• Discounts. Multi-pet, partner and annual-payment discounts lower all of these prices.
• What you pay yourself: the $1,000 deductible and 10% of every bill. If the dog has a few serious illnesses or injuries over its life, that adds thousands of dollars.
• Trupanion. It locks the age factor on the day you enroll, so a puppy’s premium changes only when the whole rate table is revised. We do not have Trupanion’s Florida rate tables. The California case shows how this structure works.

The same dog insured at seven is in enrolling at seven. How to weigh these totals against money set aside in savings is in how to choose. How each factor works is in how pet insurance is priced.

Sources

• Florida OIR (IRFS) file 26-024273, Independence American Insurance Company, V4 program (Pumpkin, Spot, PTZ channel), approved manual FL_20260724, effective 1 October 2026.
• Florida OIR file 26-026451, Independence American Insurance Company, Pets Best, effective 2 September 2026.
• Florida OIR file 26-034247, Lemonade Insurance Company, manual edition November 2026, effective 18 November 2026 (new) and 2 January 2027 (renewals).
• Brand pages: Pumpkin, Spot, ASPCA, Pets Best, Lemonade; state page: Florida.