Nationwide Pet Insurance Review (2026)

Nationwide sells pet insurance at petinsurance.com. Two companies in the Nationwide group write the policies: National Casualty Company in Florida and Veterinary Pet Insurance Company in California. The California policy forms name DVM Insurance Agency as the agency.

Every detail below comes from California filing 24-2007. The regulator approved it on 7 April 2025, and it took effect on 28 August 2025. The CDI decision gave 26 August 2025 as the start date. On 8 April 2025 the company called that a clerical error, and the CDI accepted 28 August the same day. The filing covers My Pet Protection Plus, a plan that employers offer staff as a voluntary benefit. Its rate manual replaces the manuals of the older employer plans VBW-I and VB-II. Nationwide told the regulator it will later move existing VBW-I and VB-II policies to the new plan (filing 24-2007).

How it works everywhere

We have read only one Nationwide policy in full: My Pet Protection Plus, sold through employers in California (filing 24-2007). The points below describe it and the older VBW-I and VB-II employer plans, whose rate pages are in the same filing. The filing also lists other California plans of Veterinary Pet Insurance Company: Modular Pet Insurance and Percent of Invoice Plan A, sold directly, and Major Medical. We have not reviewed them, nor the Florida endorsement to Modular Pet Insurance, VS-452-FL (filing 26-013382).

• No plan in filing 24-2007 is unlimited. VBW-I and VB-II pay at most $7,500 a year. In My Pet Protection Plus each medical coverage has its own limit, from $2,500 to $5,000 a year (filing 24-2007).
• Accident cover is mandatory. Illness, congenital and hereditary conditions, cruciate ligaments, behavioral problems, prescription food and wellness (routine preventive care) are bought separately (filing 24-2007).
• My Pet Protection Plus pays back 50% to 80% of medical bills; 90% is not offered. The deductible is $100 to $1,000, once per policy year (filing 24-2007).
• The price is recalculated at every renewal from the pet’s age on the policy anniversary (filing 24-2007).
• The price depends on claims. At renewal, the illness, congenital and hereditary, and cruciate parts of the price are multiplied by a claims factor. It is 0.863 if no medical claims were paid in the past 12 months and rises to 4.483 if more than $3,500 was paid (filing 24-2007, Table 9). A new policy starts at 1.000. The rate manual counts claims paid in the 12 months before the renewal quote. The disclosure form IDIP-MPPP-CA in the same filing says claims from the past 18 months may affect the renewal price.
• The California formula has no tenure factor (no charge for years with the company) (filing 24-2007).
• Multi-pet discount: 5% for two or more pets, 10% for more than three. All discounts together are capped at 20% (filing 24-2007).
• Monthly payment adds $3.25 to each installment on My Pet Protection Plus and $2.00 on VBW-I and VB-II. Payroll deduction has no fee (filing 24-2007).
• Conditions that existed before the policy are excluded with no look-back limit. An extra exclusion listed on the declarations page can be reviewed if records show the condition was cured at least six months before the request. This does not work for chronic conditions (form VS-G-16-CA, section 15).

Pros

• The California plan has no waiting period for accidents or illnesses, according to the company’s answer to the regulator in filing 24-2007.
• A year without paid medical claims lowers the renewal price: factor 0.863 against 1.000 for a new policy (filing 24-2007).
• You can ask to remove an extra exclusion listed on the declarations page if records show the condition was cured at least six months before the request. Send the request within 60 days after the exclusion is added or within 30 days after the policy term ends (form VS-G-16-CA, section 15).
• The company told the regulator that a condition the policy already covered will not become pre-existing at renewal, and that renewal needs no vet exam (filing 24-2007).
• Wellness, behavioral and prescription food cover can be bought separately. For behavioral and prescription food you choose a limit per policy term: $40, $60, $80 or $100. No deductible or co-insurance applies to them. They can be bought only with accident and illness cover (filing 24-2007, manual pages N-VPI-MPPP-R-CA-7 and -8).

Cons

• The highest limit in My Pet Protection Plus is $5,000 a year for each medical coverage. Across accident, illness, congenital and hereditary, and cruciate cover that adds up to $20,000 (coverage comparison in filing 24-2007). VBW-I and VB-II pay at most $7,500 a year in total. A lifetime price with these limits cannot be compared fairly with the unlimited plans of other brands. My Pet Protection Plus also prices each coverage separately. For both reasons we show no lifetime price for Nationwide in California.
• The renewal price depends on your claims. If more than $3,500 was paid in a year, the illness part of the price is 4.483 / 0.863 = 5.2 times that of a pet with no claims (filing 24-2007, Table 9).
• At every renewal of My Pet Protection Plus the insurer re-assesses the risk. With written notice it can change the reimbursement percentage, the deductible and the policy terms (underwriting guidelines in filing 24-2007).
• The policy form lets the insurer cancel or not renew for “a substantial change in the condition, factor, or loss experience material to insurability” (form VS-G-16-CA, section 12.D).
• On VBW-I and VB-II your share of the bill (co-insurance) rises to 50% once $8,000 of medical claims has been paid within three policy terms (underwriting guidelines in filing 24-2007).
• Past increases on the California VBW-I plan were large: +20.0% from 25 June 2020 (19-1271), +20.0% from 18 August 2021 (20-2542), +68.1% from 11 August 2023 (22-1520), +25.0% from 11 July 2024 (24-531). The insurer had asked for +95% in 22-1520 and +49.5% in 24-531. Approved figures come from Exhibit 2 of filing 24-2007; requested figures from the CDI WARFF register.
• According to the CDI decision, filing 24-2007 raises rates by 26.6% on average for 139,178 California policyholders. Individual changes run from −91% to +1,482%.
• Congenital and hereditary conditions, cruciate ligament disease and prescription food are paid options, not base cover. Cruciate cover cannot be bought at enrollment. It can be added at a renewal no earlier than 12 months after the policy starts. Cruciate signs that appear in the first policy year are excluded (form VS-G-16-CA, sections 4.E and 8.P).
• If one side of a paired condition, such as a cruciate ligament, was pre-existing, the other side is excluded too. The same applies to disc disease anywhere in the spine (form VS-G-16-CA).
• Once a dog is 8, you cannot add cover at renewal (underwriting guidelines in filing 24-2007).
• You will be refused if any insurer has ever cancelled or not renewed your policy for any reason other than non-payment (underwriting guidelines in filing 24-2007).

What we could not verify

• Florida. National Casualty Company filed rate filing 26-013923 on 13 March 2026, and it was approved on 1 September 2026. The IRFS filing card gives 11 June 2026 as its effective date, earlier than the approval. An earlier rate filing, 25-056884, was filed on 17 December 2025 and approved on 11 June 2026. Its IRFS card gives effective dates of 14 August 2026 for new policies and 22 October 2026 for renewals. We have read neither and do not have their rate pages, so the Florida formula and increases are unknown.
• Florida waiting periods, enrollment ages and coverage: we have not read any Florida policy form.
• We have not read the later California VBW-I rate filing, CDI 24-2032 (+15.8% requested, according to the CDI WARFF register). We do not know which VBW-I rates apply today, or whether VBW-I and VB-II policies have moved to My Pet Protection Plus.
• The CDI WARFF register lists 2024 filings withdrawing the California Major Medical (24-1178) and POI Plan A (24-1265) plans. No record shows whether their policyholders were refused renewal.
• We have not checked the retail plans on petinsurance.com against the filed policy forms.
• Whether Nationwide pays vets directly.
• In 2024 Nationwide said it would not renew about 100,000 pet insurance policies (Boston 25 News, 17 June 2024). The company did not name the states, so we do not know whether Florida or California was affected.
• How many customers got +30% or more under filing 24-2007: the exhibit with the spread of changes is unreadable in the public copy.