Best Pet Wellness Plans for Routine Care

Pet wellness plans are typically an add-on to accident-and-illness pet insurance and include an additional monthly premium. Preventative care packages are usually between $10 and $25 per month in addition to the pet insurance premium and cover preventive health care, such as routine vet visits, vaccinations and spaying/neutering.

Lemonade offers the best pet wellness plans with two add-on preventative care packages for under $27 per month.

Many of the top pet insurance companies offer pet wellness plans, and we compared coverages, costs, and overall pros and cons of the companies to help you find the right coverage.

A pet wellness plan covers routine health care such as annual vet checkups, lab work, blood work, vaccines, dental treatments and more. These routine treatments and check-ups are essential to maintaining your pet’s health. A pet wellness plan often only covers preventive care and does not include accident and illness coverage, so most pet insurance companies call their wellness plans a preventive care plan. 

Pet insurance plans typically cover costs associated with accidents and illnesses. They don’t include wellness coverage.

The table below compares coverage for a pet insurance policy versus a pet wellness plan.

Watch the video below to learn more in-depth differences between pet insurance plans and preventative care plans by Heart and Paw.

A pet wellness plan can be worth it. Though routine pet care costs less than surgeries or cancer treatments, you’ll ultimately spend more on preventive care throughout your pet’s lifetime if you don’t have a wellness plan.

According to health care financing company Care Credit, vet exams, core vaccinations, and procedures such as spaying or neutering and microchip implantations can total $1,800 in a puppy’s first year. The first-year cost for a cat is nearly $1,200.

Without a wellness plan, pet owners should plan to spend $7,600 to $19,000 in veterinary care over their cat or dog’s lifetime. A wellness plan offers anywhere between 80% to 100% reimbursement for this necessary health care. Instead of accumulating high costs over time, you pay a small monthly fee to ensure your furry companion remains happy and healthy.

The cost of a preventative care add-on will depend heavily on the provider and the amount of coverage included. Pet owners cannot buy just a pet wellness plan; they must also buy an accident-and-illness or accident-only insurance plan.

The cost for just a pet wellness plan add-on is typically under $20, ranging from $10-$19 for our top recommended companies. The cost ranges from around $41 to $67 for a basic pet insurance policy and a preventative care package.

Most pet insurance companies offer the same pet wellness plan option for all breeds. The table below has a breakdown of pet wellness plan costs and the overall cost of pet insurance and preventative care.

Here are our top picks for pet insurance providers that also offer pet wellness plans:

Do Pet Wellness Plans Have Waiting Periods?

Every pet insurance company has waiting periods before coverage begins, which also applies to wellness plans. The average waiting period for a pet insurance policy is one to two weeks. Be sure to enroll in a pet insurance plan with an additional wellness plan before starting routine care to receive coverage.

Do Pet Wellness Plans Cover Preexisting Conditions?

No, pet wellness plans don’t cover preexisting conditions. Unfortunately, no pet insurer currently covers preexisting conditions. Insurance companies see pets with these medical conditions as costly and high-risk investments, especially since they’re guaranteed to need veterinary care in the foreseeable future.

However, some companies will distinguish between curable and incurable conditions, opting to cover curable conditions with specific stipulations. In addition, some routine treatments covered in wellness plans may help cure these conditions.

Pet wellness plans cover preventive care for your animal needs and make these routine costs more affordable in the long run. A wellness plan eases the financial burden of your pet’s regular care and health issues when paired with a comprehensive accident-and-illness plan. 

We recommend getting three quotes from top pet insurance companies to compare their accident-and-illness and wellness plans closely. Use the tool below to get free quotes from some of our top recommendations.

Other Pet Insurance Resources

Read some of our additional pet insurance resources below:

Our review of pet insurance companies is based on in-depth industry research that includes reading hundreds of customer reviews, scoping quote and purchasing processes by secret shopping, speaking to representatives on the phone to assess the customer service experience, and surveying 1,000 dog and cat owners nationwide to determine the most important elements of pet insurance coverage.

We scored each provider on a 100-point scale based on those elements. We then divided this final score by 20 to calculate an overall star rating out of 5.0 stars.

Here are more details about each factor and how it’s weighted:

• Monthly pricing (25 points): The best pet insurance companies combine comprehensive coverage and plan options with affordable rates.
• Plans (15 points): The top pet insurance companies offer accident-and-illness plans, accident-only plans and wellness or preventive care add-ons to give customers the option to choose a plan that’s best for their pet.
• Covered treatments (15 points): We scored companies based on the treatments and procedures they cover. Companies with a breadth of included treatments and unique coverages received more points than providers with more standard or general policies.
• Customization options (10 points): Providers with more annual-limit, deductible and reimbursement-rate options earned the highest scores.
• Customer care (10 points): We scored companies on their website accessibility and overall usability, customer service availability, mobile apps (if any), money-back guarantees and veterinarian telehealth options, awarding points to the insurers with more customer experience offerings.
• Industry reputation (10 points): We reviewed up-to-date ratings and accreditation information from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and scored companies on their years of industry experience and state availability.
• Waiting periods (10 points): Companies with shorter accident, illness and orthopedic waiting periods between the sign-up and coverage start date scored higher than companies with longer waiting periods.
• Eligible age (5 points): Some companies don’t offer policies for pets that are over a certain age. We deducted points from providers that have age limits for covered pets.

We use our rating system to compare and contrast each company against key factors to help us determine the best pet insurance companies in the industry. To learn more, read our full pet insurance methodology for reviewing and scoring providers.

Alex Hawkins is an avid writer and researcher specializing in solar, pet insurance and home improvement. When he isn’t surveying homeowners to understand their pain points or speaking with professionals in the industries he covers, Alex can often be found creating videos for his YouTube channel, Analysis with Alex, or attending a heavy metal show.

Dana Getz is a seasoned editor with nearly a decade of experience writing and editing content. She has a background in journalism and worked as a fact-checker for prestigious magazines such as New York and Chicago. She holds a journalism and marketing degree from Northwestern University and has worked across numerous categories within the home services space.