Dog Insurance Cover

The percentage of eligible veterinary expenses covered depends on your selected insurance plan. 

‘Pet Essentials’ offers coverage up to 90% for dogs under eight years old before reducing to 65%. This coverage is subject to any benefit limits and annual condition limits related to your policy. 

On the other hand, both ‘Comprehensive Cover’ and ‘Major Medical Cover’ offer up to 80% coverage of eligible veterinary expenses, subject to any excess and annual benefit limits. Any applicable excess is deducted from your benefit payout.

You can insure your dog starting from 8 weeks old.

For Comprehensive and Major Medical cover, you should enrol your dog before its 9th birthday.

For Pet Essentials, enrolment should be done before the dog’s 12th birthday.

Just like with many other insurance products available, there are several scenarios where coverage won’t apply to your dog insurance policy. 

Exclusions typically include:

• pre-existing conditions
• preventative or routine treatments (unless you have purchased a routine care benefit as part of your coverage, which offers contributions up to routine care limits)
• some elective treatments and procedures
• issues related to breeding or obstetrics
• orthodontic treatments
• genetic or chromosome testing

For a comprehensive list of exclusions, please refer to your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), which you can find under Downloads.

Your pet insurance premium is calculated at the inception of your policy and at each policy renewal.

For new policies, we consider various factors that may increase or decrease our risk. These include the type and coverage options you choose, as well as the breed and age of your dog. We also factor in discounts or promotional offers that we provide.

For policy renewals and changes, we consider the claim history for your dog, the average cost of care for similar dogs, and our overall claims experience. Your previous premium and any applied discounts are also considered. 

The PDS under Downloads has more information about the factors used in premium calculations.

A pre-existing condition is any condition that occurred or existed before the start date of your first policy period or during any applicable waiting period, and which you or your vet were aware of (or should reasonably have been aware of). This is true regardless of whether the underlying or causative condition was diagnosed at the time.

If your dog had a temporary condition that hasn’t shown signs, symptoms, or abnormalities in the 18 months immediately before your claim treatment date, it would no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. Chronic Conditions and several other specified conditions can’t be classified under this category.

You can apply to have pre-existing conditions reviewed. Find out more about pre-existing conditions.

You can choose any vet who isn’t you and is licensed to practice legally in Australia. Should the treatment costs prove significantly higher than what is reasonably expected under the circumstances, we may adjust the claim payments to match any expected costs.

If your dog needs treatment, you can request pre-approval for your claim. Doing so helps us to provide you with the details of your claim reimbursement beforehand.

To request pre-approval, please call us at 1800 043 552.

A waiting period related to your dog insurance refers to the timeframe that starts from the commencement date of the first policy period, during which your dog isn’t covered for the respective conditions or benefits. The length of the waiting period can vary based on the chosen coverage.

Please refer to your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to understand the waiting periods applicable to your policy.