Why pet insurance prices rise

A policy gets more expensive for three reasons. The dog gets older; that is covered in how pet insurance is priced. The insurer pays out more than it priced for and revises its rates. And veterinary care gets more expensive. This guide covers the second and third reasons, and why customers put up with the increases.

Loss ratio: the insurer shows the regulator what it pays out

An insurer cannot raise its rates at will. It files a request with the state regulator and shows its loss ratio: the share of premiums paid out as claims. It compares this with the permissible loss ratio, the level at which it covers its expenses and earns its planned profit. If the projected loss ratio is above the permissible one, the rate is “inadequate”. The regulator usually approves an increase, but insurers often ask for less than their own numbers indicate. Figures from 2026 filings:

The indicated increase is what the insurer’s own calculation says the rate needs. It is not simply the projected loss ratio divided by the permissible one: the calculation also counts fixed expenses and a credibility adjustment, a correction for how much weight the company’s own data can bear. At Lemonade, 83.1% against 65% gives +23.7%, or +23.5% after the credibility adjustment.

Compare the indicated increase with the approved one. For the Pumpkin channel the insurer asked for +31% against an indicated +50%, and the regulator approved the request as filed. The remaining “debt” of about 14% waits for the next filing. At Pets Best the gap is larger: +24.4% approved against +60.5% indicated, about 29% still to come. Lemonade got almost all of its indication, so its next increase should be closer to trend.

In Florida Trupanion makes about four rate filings a year, but the documents we have do not show the size of the increases. For filing 25-043052 (from 1 February 2026) Insurify reported +12.9% for Trupanion, +24% for accident and illness policies and +35.6% for accident-only policies. These figures do not come from the filing itself. Across the company, Trupanion targets a loss ratio of about 70–71%.

Veterinary inflation

Trupanion’s shareholder letter describes it this way. Until 2022 veterinary prices rose 5–7% a year. Then they rose by double digits three years in a row, more than 40% in total. In 2025 the rise was again in double digits, and in early 2026 it was “moderating slightly from elevated levels”. Rate filings call this loss trend: the yearly growth in claim costs. Lemonade uses a net trend (claim growth above premium growth) of about 12% a year, IAIC 10–12%. It is not a separate increase. It is the yearly inflation step that everything else is added to.

Why veterinary care costs more:

• the services cost more: clinics hire specialists, buy expensive equipment and get bought up by corporate chains;
• each patient gets more treatment: an MRI instead of an X-ray, cancer treatment instead of euthanasia;
• owners use more care: insured owners treat more because they can afford to.

The regulator

Insurers file pet insurance rates in each state separately, and each state approves them. In Florida the regulator, the Office of Insurance Regulation, usually reviews a filing in one to four months and approves increases backed by the loss ratio. In the 2026 filings the insurers created the gap themselves by asking for less than indicated. The Pumpkin channel asked for and got +31.31% against an indicated +50.14%, Pets Best got +24.4% against +60.5%, and Lemonade +22.0% against +23.7%.

California regulators are slower and stricter, and they often cut the request. Trupanion asked for +28.1% and got +19.0% (25-2461). MetLife asked for +40.0% and got +36.9% (25-2234). Nationwide asked for +27.8% and got +26.6%, on an indication of +41.5% (24-2007). But even a strict state only delays an increase; it does not cancel it. Trupanion raised its California rates 28.9% from July 2024, 31.7% from July 2025 and 19.0% from July 2026. What is not taken now comes later. More in the guide to state laws and on the Florida and California pages.

Lock-in: why customers put up with increases

Insurers can raise prices 20–30% a year mainly because of pre-existing conditions: illnesses the pet had before the policy started. Once a dog has a diagnosis, you cannot move to another insurer and keep coverage for it (see pre-existing conditions). The owner chooses between paying 30% more and losing coverage for a chronic illness altogether. More in the pet insurance trap.

Trupanion keeps 98.3% of its customers each month, about 82% a year. One in five leaves. The rest stay, and they include everyone who has nowhere else to go. Trupanion’s 2024 shareholder letter says so plainly: nearly half of its members got an increase above 20%, and about half of those got one above 30%.

What to expect

Add it all up:

• age: in Florida, from 7 to 10 each birthday adds 16–30% at IAIC (Pumpkin, Spot, Pets Best) and 19–22% at Lemonade for most breeds, and from 8 to 9 Lemonade adds 40–41%;
• tenure, the number of years with the insurer: about +3% a year at IAIC;
• the inflation trend: +10–12%;
• the “debt” from increases not yet taken.

For a dog aged 7–10, most products come to +25–40% a year. Trupanion’s price rises only when it revises its rates, but in California those revisions were +19–32% a year three years in a row. So plan for the total over the dog’s life, not the first-year price: see how to choose and how to read a rate filing. The rating methodology explains how the scores on this site use loss ratios and increases.

Sources

• Florida OIR, IRFS: IAIC 26-024273 (Exhibit 3a and the OIR rate indications form), IAIC 26-026451 (approved version of 26 August 2026), Lemonade 26-034247, APIC 25-043052, 26-021862, 26-035528.
• California Department of Insurance, rate filing search: APIC 25-2461 (with the history of earlier increases 24-32 and 24-2461), Metropolitan General 25-2234, Veterinary Pet Insurance 24-2007.
• Trupanion: 2025 annual report (10-K), 2024 shareholder letter (SEC DEFA14A, 2025), Q4 2025 earnings call transcript.
• Insurify: approved increases in Florida in 2025–2026.