Pet insurance in Washington

What the law guarantees

Washington’s pet insurance law took effect on 1 January 2024. It is chapter 48.205 of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), passed in 2023 as Senate Bill 5319, and it follows the NAIC Pet Insurance Model Act, a template law that state regulators wrote for states to copy.

What it requires:

• No waiting period for accidents: “Waiting periods for accidents are prohibited” (RCW 48.205.050).
• Illnesses and orthopedic conditions not caused by an accident can have a waiting period of up to 30 days. The policy must let you waive it with a vet exam. You pay for the exam unless the policy says the insurer will. The insurer can say what the exam must include, but it may not “unreasonably restrict” your ability to waive the wait.
• If the insurer denies a claim as pre-existing (an illness the pet had before the policy), the insurer has to prove it.
• A condition the policy already covered does not become pre-existing when you renew, and the insurer cannot require a vet exam for renewal.
• Before you buy, the insurer must tell you which conditions are excluded, the waiting periods, deductible and limits, whether the premium rises with age, after claims or when you move, and which company is the insurer if a brand sells the policy. All of this goes into a document called the Insurer Disclosure of Important Policy Provisions. The main page of the insurer’s or its administrator’s website must link to it, and a copy comes with the policy (RCW 48.205.040).
• You can return the policy within 15 days for a full refund if you have made no claim. Florida gives 30 days. Pets Best and Trupanion give 30 days in Washington.
• A wellness program (routine vaccines and check-ups) is not insurance, and buying a policy cannot depend on it.

What the law does not stop

The law says plainly that it does not limit the kinds of exclusions a policy can have (RCW 48.205.030).

It does not stop an insurer from refusing to renew because your pet got older or developed an illness while insured. House Bill 1078 would have banned that. The House passed the substitute bill 95–0 on 10 February 2026; the Senate never voted on it, and on 12 March 2026 it went back to the House Rules Committee. The bill would also have made an insurer that moves you to an affiliated company honor your policy to its end date with no new waiting period or exam.

What applies today is the general insurance code. An insurer that will not renew must tell you at least 60 days ahead and give the actual reason (RCW 48.18.2901, for policies issued or renewed from 1 July 2025). It must tell you the renewal premium at least 20 days ahead. If it does not, the policy renews at the old rate, and the insurer can raise it during the term only once and only after 20 days’ notice.

Raising your coverage counts as new coverage. Figo’s Washington policy allows changes only at renewal, and the added part gets a new waiting period. At Pets Best, a higher limit or an added benefit means a new policy: new waiting periods and a new pre-existing check. Anything already in your pet’s record at that point can become an exclusion.

Fine print in Washington policies

We read the Washington disclosures and sample policies of five brands. The rate filings are covered below, under “What the rate filings show”.

• Trupanion. The disclosure says new policies have no waiting periods. But unless you enroll on the day of a vet exam (the Veterinary Examination Program), the policy starts 12 days after you enroll. Those 12 days are uncovered, accidents included. If no vet examined your pet’s teeth in the 365 days before the start, dental cover begins only at the first dental exam. The disclosure does not say whether the premium rises with age, which the law asks it to state.
• Figo. Illness waits 14 days and orthopedic illness 30. To waive the wait, a vet must examine the pet within 7 days of the start and the form must reach Figo within the same 7 days (the waiver form itself says to return it on the day of the exam); Figo decides within 30 days. A pet that ever had signs of any of 20 listed conditions, allergies and dental disease among them, cannot get the waiver, and anything the vet notes at that exam becomes pre-existing. One ligament or knee problem before the policy excludes every ligament and knee condition; allergies work the same way. After three similar claims, such as swallowed objects, bite wounds or car accidents, those incidents stop being covered. You must keep up an annual check-up, an annual dental exam and parasite prevention. Vet exam fees are paid only with an add-on. At renewal the premium can rise with age and “veterinary cost inflation”, and Figo can change the terms.
• Pets Best. In Washington the insurer is American Pet Insurance Company, Trupanion’s insurer, not Independence American as in most states. Trupanion has said that this arrangement with Pets Best ends after the third quarter of 2028; what happens to Washington policies then has not been announced. The Washington endorsement (06/2025) sets 14 days for illness and 30 days for cruciate ligament disease. The Washington disclosure on the website (edited 12/2023) excludes “a chronic condition if manifested prior to coverage” and lists cruciate disease, atopy (skin allergy) and hip dysplasia as chronic, a wider definition than the law’s. Pets Best “may” waive the wait if a vet fills in its form.
• Healthy Paws. Illness and orthopedic conditions wait 15 days; hip dysplasia waits 30. Hip dysplasia is never covered for a pet enrolled at 6 or older. Vet exam fees, dental illness and special diets are not covered. The premium can change every year for all policyholders, with veterinary costs, the program’s claims in your region and your pet’s age, on 60 days’ notice. The insurer can cancel the policy with 90 days’ notice.
• Spot. In Washington the insurer is United States Fire Insurance Company, not Independence American. The disclosure says it outright: premiums will increase as your pet gets older. Illness waits 14 days, and anything that shows up during the wait counts as pre-existing. A vet exam can shorten the wait but does not change what counts as pre-existing, and the waiver form linked from Spot’s Washington page is its Maine form. Under the Washington sample policy, one ligament or knee problem before the start or during the wait excludes every ligament and knee condition, on both sides. A cured condition is covered again after 180 days without symptoms or treatment, but not a chronic, orthopedic, hereditary or congenital one. Coverage and rates can change at every renewal.

Embrace also sells in Washington, but we found no Washington policy or disclosure to check. Embrace’s rates in the state are filed by the insurer American Modern Home.

How rates take effect

An insurer must file its rates with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) before using them (RCW 48.19.040). A filing cannot take effect until 30 days after it is filed, and the OIC can add 15 more days. If the OIC does not disapprove it within that time, it counts as approved (RCW 48.19.060). The filing and its supporting documents become public only after it takes effect. California, by contrast, publishes the request in advance, and its regulator often allows less than the insurer asked for.

The OIC points to SERFF Filing Access (serff-sfa.naic.org/serff/sfa/home/WA) for filings. That address did not load on 17 October 2026 and has worked again since 19 October. What we found in 45 Washington filings from six insurers is in the next section. The OIC objects and gets insurers to recalculate: in 2023 Independence American cut its increase from +6.4% to +4.1% after an OIC objection, and in 2026 Pets Best cut its increase from +15.4% to +14.1%. You can ask the OIC for a copy of a filing through a public disclosure request, and the Rates, Forms and Provider Networks division answers questions about filings at 360-725-7111.

What the rate filings show

On 23 October 2026 we read 45 Washington rate filings in SERFF. They were filed from 2020 to 2026:

• American Pet Insurance Company (NAIC 12190): Trupanion, Aflac, Trupanion for Chewy Health and Pets Best, 19 filings;
• three Chubb companies, Westchester Fire (10030), ACE American (22667) and Indemnity Insurance Company of North America (43575): Healthy Paws, 16 filings;
• Independence American (26581): Figo, PetPartners, Pets Best, Spot and policies formerly insured by United States Fire, 5 filings, one of them for horses;
• American Modern Home (23469): Embrace, 5 filings.

We have not yet collected the filings of Nationwide (National Casualty), Lemonade, MetLife, Metromile, AXIS (Fetch) and United States Fire (Spot, ASPCA). We have almost none of the OIC’s objection letters; what we have is mostly the insurers’ answers. Where the files do not show the approved percentage, we say “requested”.

Increases

The year is when the increase took effect, or was to take effect under the filing.

The percentage in the table is the average across all policyholders. At ACE and Indemnity the base rate rose slightly more: +6%, +5.45%, +32.2%, +91% at ACE and +5.75%, +34.4% at Indemnity, because part of the price is a fixed amount. The Indemnity filing for 2022 gives no average, so the table shows the base rate. Your premium can rise much more: age comes on top, and when the factors are revised, the spread is huge. At Embrace in 2023 the average was +6.5%, but individual pets’ prices changed by −40% to +241%. At Independence American in 2026 the average is +19.3%, but one insured pet in nine gets +50% or more, up to +214.66%.

At Pets Best, Healthy Paws and Independence American the calculation often shows more than the company takes. In our estimate, the shortfall comes in the next filings. In September 2025 Pets Best took +15% when its calculation showed +29.6%, and in March 2026 it took another +30%.

Pets Best: two increases a year

In Washington, Pets Best policies are issued by American Pet Insurance Company. The base rate in the rate manual was $492.57 in January 2021 and is $1,701.05 from 2 September 2026. That is 3.45× in 5 years and 8 months. The factors for age, area, deductible and discounts have not changed since 2021; only the base rose. So the same dog at the same age costs 3.11 times as much in September 2026 as in August 2022.

Since 2025 the manual raises the rate twice a year, on 2 March and 2 September. The policy is annual, so at renewal you get both increases at once: 1.495× for the year to September 2025 and 1.483× for the year to September 2026. That holds if the rates apply from the dates in the manual. The company confirmed the actual date only for March 2025, and in 2022–2024 it brought in rates later than the manual’s date.

In 2023 the company asked for +33.8% and brought in +22%, from 2 November 2023 by its own rate history. The documents do not show who lowered the figure or why: we have no OIC letters for 2023. In 2026 the OIC challenged the trends the company chose. The company recalculated the rate and lowered the increase from +15.4% to +14.1%. There is no approval letter, but this is the version the company sent after the objection.

The age factor for a mixed-breed dog is 0.696 from age 0 through 4, 2.281 at 10 (3.3×), 3.108 at 12 (4.5×) and 4.475 at 14 (6.4×).

Our calculation of the premium under the rates from 2 September 2026. We chose the terms: mixed breed, Seattle (ZIP codes starting with 981), you pay 20% of the bill, a $250 annual deductible, a $5,000 annual limit, no add-ons or discounts, paid for the year at once. This is not a quote and not a typical policy.

At 13 the premium is more than the insurer can pay out in a year.

In this calculation, one renewal from age 9 to 10 (September 2025 to September 2026) goes from $1,764 to $3,544, 2.01 times. That is one of the steepest steps of the age curve; at other ages a renewal adds less. The manual does not say outright that a renewal uses the pet’s current age. We infer it from the rising average age factor of the book. A mixed-breed dog that was 6 in 2022 ($434) costs $3,544 at 10, 8.2 times as much.

The company’s rate documents have no tenure surcharge, no discount or surcharge for claims, and no cap on renewal increases. New customers are accepted: “All dogs and cats are eligible for enrollment”. The filings say nothing about a move to another insurer after 2028.

Customers are moving to high deductibles. The book’s average deductible factor fell from 0.847 (July–September 2024) to 0.777 (July–September 2025). The drop began after the September 2024 increase and continued after the +30% in March 2025. The company writes to the OIC: “As renewing members tend to migrate towards higher deductibles, we believe the 8-pt trend better captures the current trajectory”. The company calls this customer choice. In our reading, the likely reason is price. The premium is lower, but so are the payouts. And if the pet has already been ill, another insurer will exclude that illness as pre-existing.

Claims grew faster than the premium collected. Claims as a share of earned premium were 65.8% for the year to 30 September 2021 and 82% for the year to 30 September 2024. The rates assume 58% for claims together with the cost of handling them. In the 2024–2025 filings, another 31.65% of premium is the commission to Pets Best as managing general agent (MGA).

Healthy Paws: closed blocks

In Washington, Healthy Paws works through three Chubb companies. Westchester Fire issues new policies. The ACE American and Indemnity books are closed to new customers. The company asked to close them from 20 January 2023, and the OIC approved the filings on 21 December 2022 (ACEH-133499782, ACEH-133499785). Only pets already insured stay there. New pets, including new pets of existing customers and pets of people who moved to the state, go to Westchester Fire.

You can move from an old book, but “they will be rated as new business in 3.0”. Most likely that means by the pet’s current age (our inference). In a filing submitted in January 2026, the company writes that pets of the old books “either were transitioned over or will be soon”. The files do not say whether the move is voluntary or whether cover for conditions already found is kept.

The ACE book, by the company’s figures:

• pet-months a year: 85,787 (July 2019 to June 2020) and 35,128 (July 2023 to June 2024), down 59%;
• claims per pet per month: 0.275 and 0.505;
• trended claims were 132–140% of premium in the calculation filed in December 2023 and 124–129% in the 2024 one. The calculation filed in January 2023, with a different trend method, showed 83–109%. Untrended, for July 2023 to June 2024, they were 121.9%;
• average premium: $48.12 and $113.99 per pet per month, before the +91% request;
• base rate for dogs: $96.66 in 2021, $142.83 in 2024 (1.48×). In November 2024 the company asked for $272.81 (+91%). If that was approved in full, the base grew 2.82 times in four years.

The company does not say why the book is shrinking. In our estimate it is the typical pattern of a closed block: no young pets join, the pets that stay grow older, and the healthier ones probably leave. This is the pet insurance trap.

The three books count age differently.

• ACE: the factor is “determined and applied annually”, and the table ends at age 12.
• Indemnity: in the 2021–2023 rating rules the factor was fixed at enrollment: it “will not change through the life of the pet” while the policy stays in force without a break. The files do not say whether this carries over to Westchester.
• Westchester: the plan filed in 2021 has two age factors. The first is recalculated each year by current age. The second is a permanent surcharge for age at enrollment: up to 2.45× for a dog enrolled at 7, in the calculation for the last version of the plan. In the same plan a dog’s factor rises 4.7 times from age 1 to 10. The approved table is not in the files. Whether both factors apply today cannot be checked from the files.

The average premium across the three books rose from $47.96 (October 2020 to September 2021) to $79.57 (October 2024 to September 2025) per pet per month, by 66%. This is an average over a mix of books, not the price of one policy.

Embrace: the price rises with tenure

Embrace policies in Washington are insured by American Modern Home. Five increases were approved in 2021–2025 (see the table above). Multiplied together, they raised the rate level about 2.55 times (our calculation from the filed levels). The average premium for accident and illness cover was $496.26 before the 2021 increase and $1,078.96 after the 2025 increase. These are averages over a changing mix of customers, not the price of one policy.

Age and tenure. Since October 2023 one combined table applies: “Underwriting Age & Tenure”. Tenure counted before too; in 2023 the tables were revised and merged. The manual does not define “Underwriting Age”. In our reading of the table, it is the age at enrollment, and “Tenure” is the years on the policy. Then, all else being equal:

• a dog insured as a puppy gets a factor of 3.44 at age 10, while a new 10-year-old dog gets 2.60. The long-time customer pays about 32% more;
• if the long-time customer has no claims and gets the 10% Healthy Pet Discount, the gap is about 19%;
• from this table alone, the price of a dog insured as a puppy rises 8–10% a year for the first four years, then about 16% a year. For a dog insured at 8, it rises 20% a year.

A discount for no claims. The Healthy Pet Discount is 5% after one year and 10% after two, if paid closed claims for the pet in a year are $300 or less. If more is paid out, you lose the discount. Without other discounts, that is a price rise of up to 11%. Before 2023 there was a deductible in its place that went down by $50 for each year without claims.

The average does not show your increase. The 2023 filing for +6.5% revised the factors for age, tenure, breed, limits and the sex of cats, and changed individual pets’ prices by −40% to +241% (21,699 pets in all). In 2021 the filed level was +19.09%. By the company’s own calculation, with aging and the end of an earlier cap included, the median pet got about +36% at renewal, one pet in four got more than +50%, and the highest was +124%. The biggest increases came from adding back premium the cap had cut before (for about 22% of pets).

No cap. The ±35% cap was temporary: it applied only to the changes from the 2018–2019 filing (AMMH-131429248) and only to the first three renewals. In 2021 the company took aging and future increases out of it; in 2022 the rule was deleted. Embrace’s Washington rules have no general cap on renewal increases.

+57.38% at once. The company based the increase from January 2024 on a forecast: claims per pet rise 17% a year (the number of claims by 5.2%, the average claim by 11.2%). The historical trend had been 4.8%. The price index for veterinary services, in the same answer to the OIC, rose 5.9% a year over 5 years and about 12% over the last year (our calculation).

In the first version of the 2022 manual the company added an automatic 7% a year increase without new filings: “(1.07)^(n/12)”, “Veterinary Inflation”. The final version does not have that page. Apparently it was not approved. There is no OIC letter about it.

Embrace sets aside 50 to 54 cents of each premium dollar for claims and the cost of handling them.

Independence American: Figo, PetPartners, Spot and United States Fire policies

In 2020–2021 the OIC objected several times that one company cannot charge different prices for the same coverage under different brands (RCW 48.19.020, RCW 48.18.480). In the company’s own table with rates as of 1 January 2021, a five-year-old mixed-breed dog of 21–50 pounds in ZIP code 98005, with the same $100 deductible, 80% reimbursement and $5,000 limit, cost a year: Pets Best $317.05, Figo $483.24, PetFirst $681.60, PetPartners $730.96. Figo’s and PetPartners’ rates were still under review then, and the programs’ other coverage differed. For a Dalmatian on other terms the gap is smaller: $449.54 to $723.96.

After a meeting with the OIC on 17 May 2022, the company, “based on guidance provided by the WA OIC”, merged the rates of Figo, PetPartners, Pets Best and Spot into one (IAIC-133696014). From 2026 V4 is part of it too. Base rates are set from the combined cost of claims and adjusted for each program’s coverage.

2023: the merger. The company asked for +6.4%. After the OIC objected that installment and policy fees are premium too, it lowered that to +4.1%. 5,099 policyholders were affected, with changes from −70.6% to +248.2%. For PetPartners dogs the age factor rose 108.5% at age 14 and older and 81.5% at age 10. But PetPartners’ base rate fell 41.7% at the same time, so this is not a 108.5% rise in premium.

2026: moving V4. V4 is the policies that United States Fire used to insure. They are now moving to Independence American, onto the common age scale. The documents do not say which brands were sold on V4 in Washington. The V4 age factor rises 101.6% for a 10-year-old dog, 159.2% for a 14-year-old dog and 108.9% for a 14-year-old cat. At the same time the V4 base rate for dogs falls 36.4%. In our estimate from the average factors, a 10-year-old V4 dog gets about +75% and a 14-year-old about +125%. The average for V4 dogs is +28%.

By the company’s distribution, of 32,556 insured pets 3,572 get +50% or more and 1,153 get +75% or more ($847 a year on average), up to +214.66%. 9,287 (28.5%) get a decrease.

Group discounts are being dropped: for partners, employers, breeders and partner websites. These customers pay 5.3–17.6% more than the owner of the same policy without a discount; the filing’s average percentage already includes this. The +17.6% applies to members of the largest partners (5,000,000 people or more). In the 2025 manual that is one group: Costco.

Spot. At the filing’s data date (October 2023) there were no Spot policies in force on Independence American forms in Washington: the program took effect on 1 November 2023. Which insurer is behind Spot policies in the state now cannot be established from these documents. Check the insurer’s name on your declarations page (the page with your policy’s terms).

A deductible that goes down. The diminishing deductible option lowers the deductible for each year without claims. By the rules, “claim-free means that during the applicable coverage period, we do not receive a claim”. Wellness claims are the exception. Read literally, any other claim, even one that is not paid, puts the deductible back where it started. This is our reading of the rate manual; we have not seen the policy form. Under the increasing annual limit option the limit grows only if the year had “$0 eligible, non-wellness claims”. In Pets Best, Figo and PetPartners data nationwide, 60.9% of pet-years passed without claims.

What is missing compared with New Jersey. The Washington documents we have seen have no tenure surcharge, no 10% discount for a year without claims paid and no rule limiting renewal increases. In New Jersey the company filed the first two, and the regulator holds a 25% cap. We did not get the approved 2026 manual; this conclusion is based on the last version filed.

Trupanion, Aflac and Chewy: price by age at enrollment

Since 2021 Trupanion has raised its Washington rates every year, twice in 2024. There were no increases in 2017 and 2020. The 2025 rate level is about 1.96 times the level from 1 December 2019 (our calculation from the company’s tables, if the 2025 increase took effect; the date cannot be established from the files). The base rate rose more: from $74.40 to $155.87, 2.1 times. The formula has terms that were not raised.

In 2026 the company asked for +27.6%. The OIC required it to redo the calculation with trends over the whole data period. The company did, but we did not get the recalculated exhibits and manuals. The memorandum for the final version did not change and still says +27.6%. The approved percentage is unknown; it may be lower.

Trupanion prices by age at enrollment. The latest Washington manual we have (2021) says: “Your monthly premium will not change due to your pet aging” and “…due to your pets individual claims experience”. We did not get the 2023–2026 manuals. Aflac and Chewy have the same rule in their 2026 manuals too.

That does not mean the price does not rise. In 2026 the OIC asked whether parts of the rating, such as age factors while the book grows fast, add disproportionately to the negative premium trend. The company answered that its priority is “lower cost risks” because of a “lower likelihood of preexisting conditions”. By the company’s data, the deductible pulls the average factors down the most (−2.4% a year), and the age factor by 0.6%. In our reading, the book’s average premium falls, the company raises the base, and everyone gets the base increase, long-time customers included.

In the year to 31 August 2024 Trupanion had already paid out 66.3% of earned premium in claims in Washington. With the claims from that year still to be paid, it comes to about 70.5% (our calculation from the company’s data). The target is 62.4%.

How the premium is split. An exhibit to the agreement between American Pet Insurance Company and its managing agent, Trupanion Managers USA, sets the agent’s commission by a formula: 87% of premium minus the estimate of ultimate claims for the month, but not below zero (Exhibit III, Profit Sharing, a version no earlier than August 2018, attached to Washington filings from 2020 to 2023). At a 62% target this gives the 25% the company quotes to regulators, including in New Jersey in April 2026. The files do not show whether this version of the formula still applies or what the agent actually received. It shows how the premium is split. It does not prove that claims are underpaid.

In the two quarters to August 2024 Trupanion’s pet-months in the state fell by 4%. We do not know what happened after that. In August 2024, with an average of +8%, the area factor changed by −30% to +16.4%, and the smallest areas got the largest cuts.

By the company’s table in a 2021 filing, 20.1% of insured pets cancel in the first year, not counting deaths. After five years about half remain (our calculation).

Aflac and Chewy get more expensive on someone else’s numbers. Both programs are priced on Trupanion’s claims. Aflac had not a single claim in Washington from the start of sales (the first policies in spring 2024) to October 2025. Over the last 12 months it averaged about 12 pets. The Aflac Unlimited base rate outside an employer (Non-Worksite) was $121.29 in June 2023 and $165.80 in May 2025 (+36.7%); $202.74 is requested for 2026. This plan is for people who bought through an employer and left the job: in 2022 the company told the OIC it did not plan to sell it any other way. Chewy averaged about 270 pets over the year and had 275 claims. Chewy’s own claims trend is negative, −3.9% to −14% a year; the calculation uses Trupanion’s trend of +13.1%. The Chewy Essential rate was $121.19 in 2023, $113.55 in 2024 and $147.59 in 2025 (+30%); $184.95 is requested for 2026 (+25.3%).

Partners get their share. For Chewy, 56% of premium is set aside for claims and their handling, because Chewy receives 6% of premium in Trupanion shares. For Aflac bought through an employer it is 48.5%, and for the plan for people who left the job (Non-Worksite) 62%.

Aflac Unlimited covers allergies that began before the policy. The manual says: “Coverage for treatment related to allergies, dermatitis and otitis even if the symptoms were present prior to enrollment date.” The company adds $9.60 a month to expected claims for this. We have not seen the policy form, so check the terms there.

The OIC got the Chewy filing corrected. The company wanted to charge $1 a month for a document listing the conditions not covered as pre-existing. After the OIC’s questions the fee was dropped. So was $3.18 for claims processing: Trupanion’s commission already covered those costs. An unsupported employee discount was removed, the multi-pet discount was cut from 10% to 5%, and “may” in the discount rules was changed to “will”: everyone who qualifies must get the discount.

What to do

• Ask which age sets the price at renewal: age at enrollment (as Trupanion, Aflac and Chewy say) or current age. Ask whether tenure and claims affect the price. At Embrace both do.
• Compare the price in 5 to 10 years, not the first-year price. Multiply it by the age curve and by the increases: at Pets Best, since 2025, that is two increases a year.
• Check the insurer on your declarations page. If it is ACE American or Indemnity and you are offered a move to Westchester Fire, ask before you move for a written answer on whether cover for conditions already found is kept and how your pet’s age will be counted.
• Find out what a claim costs you. At Embrace the discount goes once more than $300 is paid out in a year. In Independence American programs (Figo, PetPartners) with the diminishing deductible option, any claim except wellness puts the deductible back where it started.
• A higher deductible lowers the premium, but also the payouts. Work out how much you would pay yourself in a bad year.

The regulator’s fines

The OIC has fined pet insurers many times. Most of the big cases are about price: rates nobody approved and increases with no notice.

• 2016, American Pet Insurance Company (Trupanion). $150,000, with another $100,000 suspended. More than 600 rate violations, mostly rates the commissioner had not approved; unlicensed sellers; customers thought their insurer was Trupanion rather than APIC. In November 2016 the OIC imposed $10,000 of the suspended amount because the wrong rates continued. Trupanion’s agency, Trupanion Managers, was fined $150,000 the same year for about 3,300 policies sold by unlicensed staff.
• 2016 and 2019, United States Fire Insurance Company (ASPCA). $50,000, half suspended, for wrong rates, wrong policy forms and unlicensed sellers. In 2019 the OIC imposed the other half because sales through unlicensed producers continued.
• 2019, Trupanion Managers. $100,000 for gifts above the $100-a-year limit to a vet clinic in exchange for referrals and almost $245,000 in commissions to unlicensed partners.
• 2019, Healthy Paws. $20,000, among other things for unappointed sellers and for presenting itself as the insurer.
• 2020, ACE American and Indemnity Insurance Company of North America (Healthy Paws). A $950,000 fine ($200,000 suspended) and $4.7 million in refunds to 18,000 policyholders. ACE raised premiums without the 20-day notice before renewal that the law requires. Indemnity raised premiums every year as pets aged, although its approved rates said age was not a factor.
• 2023, Eusoh. $20,000 ($10,000 suspended) for selling pet insurance without a license.
• 2025, Petcube and Vets Plus More. $30,000. Their “Emergency Vet Protect Club” was sold as a membership and an alternative to insurance; the OIC found it was insurance sold without a license. A membership like that carries none of the protections of the pet insurance law.

The regulator’s own page is out of date

The OIC’s pet insurance page (checked 17 October 2026) still says that if your pet is treated for a covered condition during the policy term, some companies “may consider it a pre-existing condition when the policy renews”. Since 1 January 2024 the law forbids that. If an insurer tells you otherwise, cite RCW 48.205.020 and contact the OIC at 800-562-6900.

Sources

Filings in SERFF Filing Access, Washington, read on 23 October 2026:

• Pets Best (American Pet Insurance Company):
  • APII-132509142 (2021), APII-133242372 (2022), APII-133605945 (2023: +33.8% asked for, +22% brought in), APII-133952379 (2024), APII-134217112 (March 2025), APII-134429815 (September 2025; rate history, claims, expenses), APII-134681370 (March 2026): approved;
  • APII-134877517 (September 2026, approved; the OIC’s objection on trends, age factors, average deductible).
• Trupanion, Aflac, Trupanion for Chewy Health (American Pet Insurance Company):
  • APII-132408564 (2021), APII-132846217 (2022), APII-133375703 (2023), APII-133508197 (2024; rate history): approved;
  • APII-132937922 (Aflac launch), APII-133830300 (Aflac, 2024);
  • APII-133000586 (Chewy launch; the OIC’s objections), APII-133834562 (Chewy, 2024);
  • APII-134021526 (2024), APII-134258557 (2025): joint filings for the three programs, approved;
  • APII-134775538 (2026; the OIC’s objection, Aflac and Chewy claims; approved percentage unknown).
• Healthy Paws (Westchester Fire, ACE American, Indemnity Insurance Company of North America):
  • ACEH-133499782, ACEH-133499785 (closing the ACE and Indemnity books);
  • ACE: ACEH-132908774, ACEH-133540177, ACEH-133922309, ACEH-134316992 (+91%, requested);
  • Indemnity: ACEH-132842470, ACEH-133540193, ACEH-133922283 (+34.4%, requested);
  • Westchester Fire: ACEH-133175003 (program launch, 2021 rating plan), ACEH-133806826, ACEH-134094013, ACEH-134262731, ACEH-134484515, ACEH-134717884, ACEH-134800719 (average premium of the three books, moving pets from the old books).
• Embrace (American Modern Home):
  • AMMH-132762075 (2021; calculation of renewal increases, the ±35% rule), AMMH-133063974 (2022; “Veterinary Inflation” in the first version), AMMH-133535225 (2023; the age and tenure table, Healthy Pet Discount, the −40% to +241% spread), AMMH-133704203 (+57.38%), AMMH-134175627 (2025): approved.
• Independence American:
  • IADC-132306548 (Figo; the OIC’s objections, the price table for four programs), IADC-132303048 (PetPartners);
  • IAIC-133696014 (2023: merged rates, +4.1%);
  • IAIC-134119196 (2026: V4, +19.3%, distribution of increases, group discounts dropped, deductible and limit rules);
  • IAIC-134273320 (horses).