We went directly to state insurance department filings, not marketing pages or aggregator estimates, and compiled the actual approved rate increases by state. This is the first place we’ve found that tracks it this way, and we’re adding more states as we verify them.
Pet Insurance Rate Increases by State: The 2026 Tracker
Renewal shock isn’t a rumor. It’s sitting in public regulatory filings that almost nobody reads unless they know exactly where to look.
We read them, state by state, so this page could show what’s actually been approved, not a vague industry estimate pulled from an average across every provider and every state at once, the kind of number that sounds authoritative but tells you nothing about what’s happening in your specific state.
Pet insurance rate hike tracker projects like this one are rare precisely because compiling state-by-state data requires searching individual state insurance department filing databases, most of which aren’t set up for easy public browsing. Pet insurance rate increases by state vary enormously depending on where you live, which provider underwrites your policy, and which state regulator reviewed the filing.
This tracker compiles verified, sourced increases from five states so far, Georgia, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey, with more being added as we verify additional filings across the country over the coming months.
How this pet insurance rate increases by state tracker is built
Every figure here traces back to a state Department of Insurance approval or an insurer’s own filed rate request, reported through original news coverage of that specific regulatory action. We don’t estimate or average. If a state isn’t listed yet, it’s because we haven’t independently verified a filing for it, not because nothing happened there.
Select a state to see verified pet insurance rate increases by state
State insurance department pet insurance filings: why none cap increases
Pet insurance regulation by state is genuinely uneven across the country. Only 14 states currently regulate pet insurance as its own distinct insurance product, most others fold it into general property and casualty rules, or in Texas’s case, classify it as inland marine insurance entirely.
Several states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, have adopted versions of the NAIC’s Pet Insurance Model Act, which standardizes definitions like pre-existing condition and requires clearer disclosure of waiting periods and deductibles. California and Florida have gone further with their own state-specific laws.
None of these laws, anywhere, cap how much a rate can increase. California requires Commissioner approval under Proposition 103 before a rate change takes effect, and Florida’s regulator reviews filings too, but approval is about whether the math is justified, not about limiting the size of the increase itself.
What California and Florida’s newer laws actually change
California’s SB 1217 stops an insurer from reclassifying a condition it was already covering as pre-existing at renewal, a genuinely useful protection, but it does nothing about premium increases themselves.
Florida’s HB 655, effective January 1, 2026, eliminates accident waiting periods and shifts the burden onto the insurer to prove a pre-existing exclusion applies. Neither law puts a ceiling on price.
Texas is the stark opposite case
Texas doesn’t require pet insurers to file rate changes for approval at all. A 2021 rule amendment classified pet insurance as a “non-regulated” inland marine product in Texas, meaning rates, rules, and forms no longer need to be filed with or approved by the Texas Department of Insurance before use.
This is exactly why no Texas filing shows up in this tracker, there genuinely isn’t one to find. Insurers in Texas can adjust pet insurance pricing without the kind of public regulatory record that exists in Georgia, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.
New Jersey’s unique early-warning rule
Most states approve a rate filing quietly, policyholders simply see the new number at renewal. New Jersey requires insurers filing for a rate increase needing prior approval to notify affected policyholders directly, before the department even rules on the request.
It’s a real transparency advantage, though it only applies to filings that require prior approval, not every type of price adjustment.
Why this pattern is likely to continue
Veterinary cost inflation shows no sign of slowing. Rising specialty referral costs, more advanced diagnostic equipment becoming standard rather than exceptional, and higher labor costs at veterinary practices across the country are all structural pressures that don’t reverse quickly or easily.
Insurers price policies based on expected future claims costs, so as long as veterinary care keeps getting more expensive faster than general inflation, rate filings like the ones documented here are likely to keep coming, in these five verified states, and in every other state we haven’t yet confirmed.
What “approved” actually means in these filings
Approval isn’t a rubber stamp, but it’s also not the strict gatekeeping many owners assume. When an insurer files for a rate increase, the state regulator reviews whether the requested rate is actuarially justified, meaning the insurer has to show its claims data supports the new price.
This is a technical, numbers-driven review process, not a public hearing where policyholders get to weigh in on whether the increase feels reasonable to them.
What the regulator is checking is whether the math is sound, not whether the increase feels fair to policyholders.
This distinction genuinely matters here. A well-documented, actuarially sound case for a 45% increase, like the Pets Best filing approved in California, can clear review even though it represents a genuinely painful jump for a policyholder who’s been paying premiums for years without filing many claims against the policy.
How rate filings connect to your own renewal notice
If your premium jumped and you want to know whether it matches an actual filed increase or reflects something specific to your pet, the state filing gives you the baseline.
A filed 27% overall increase, for example, doesn’t mean every policyholder sees exactly 27%, individual factors like your pet’s age, breed, and claims history still shift where you land within that filing’s range.
Checking whether your renewal matches a documented statewide filing, rather than assuming it’s isolated to you personally, is genuinely useful context before deciding whether to shop around, call your provider directly and ask for an explanation, or simply accept the new number as part of a broader, industry-wide pattern playing out the same way in state after state.
What this means if your state isn’t listed yet
The absence of your state here doesn’t mean your provider hasn’t raised rates, it almost certainly means we haven’t yet tracked down a public, verifiable filing for it.
Individual policyholder accounts on Reddit and insurance forums consistently describe similar patterns nationwide, MetLife customers reporting roughly $50 monthly jumps at renewal, Spot customers seeing 25% increases shortly after a single claim, all consistent with what our verified pet insurance price increase 2026 data above shows in public filings.
If you want to check your own state directly, most Departments of Insurance publish rate filing databases, often through the SERFF system, where you can search by insurer name for pet insurance rate actions specific to your state.
Frequently asked questions
Very limited compared to Georgia, California, or Florida. Since 2021, Texas classifies pet insurance as a non-regulated inland marine product, meaning insurers don’t need to file rates for state approval before using them. General consumer protection laws still apply, but the specific rate-filing oversight seen in other states doesn’t exist there.
Pet insurance rate increases by state depend on each state’s insurance department, which independently reviews and approves rate filings, and regulatory strictness varies significantly from state to state. States with pet-specific laws like California and Florida still approve significant increases, they just require more disclosure and justification than states with no pet-specific regulation at all, and Texas requires essentially none.
Yes, technically, a regulator can reject a filing it finds unjustified. In practice, the filings we found were approved, sometimes at levels close to what the insurer originally requested, suggesting regulators are generally accepting the cost justifications insurers provide rather than pushing back hard on the requested numbers.
In most cases, yes, though finding it requires searching your state Department of Insurance’s rate filing database directly, often through the SERFF system, since this data generally isn’t compiled or summarized anywhere else.
Search by insurer name rather than by product type, since pet insurance filings are sometimes categorized under a parent company’s broader property and casualty filings rather than a dedicated pet insurance category.
Yes. This is designed as an ongoing resource. States are added only once we’ve independently verified a specific, sourced rate filing, rather than estimating based on national averages or unverified reports.
Not automatically. Switching means starting over as a new applicant, and any condition your pet has already been diagnosed with becomes newly pre-existing at a new provider. See our full guide on switching pet insurance before deciding based on price alone.
The bottom line on pet insurance rate increases by state
The rate increases showing up in mailboxes this year aren’t rumors or outliers, they’re documented, regulator-approved facts sitting in public filings most owners never think to check.
Georgia, California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey alone show a consistent pattern: increases in the high single digits to mid-50s percent, approved or filed with no ceiling on how high they can go.
Texas shows the opposite extreme, no filing requirement at all, which means no public record for us or anyone else to check against. Between these two realities sits most of the country, states with some oversight but no price ceiling, and states with almost no visibility into pricing decisions whatsoever.
This page will keep growing as we verify more states. If your state shows a gap here, that’s an open research item on our end, not evidence nothing happened where you live.
For more on what a rate increase actually means for your specific policy, see our Switch Pet Insurance guide, or explore how waiting periods and pre-existing rules work in our Pre-Existing Conditions guide. You can also learn more about how we research every guide on our About page.
Sources
- Georgia Department of Insurance, rate filing approval, reported via Insurify (2026)
- California Department of Insurance (CDI), rate filing approvals for Pets Best/APIC, Trupanion/APIC, Lemonade, and Figo/Independence American, reported via Insurify (2024-2026)
- Florida Department of Insurance, rate filing approvals for Metropolitan General/MetLife, Healthy Paws/ACE, and Trupanion, reported via Insurify and Beinsure (2026)
- New York Department of Financial Services, AXIS Insurance rate filing approval, reported via Insurify (2026)
- New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, Independence American rate filing and historical Trupanion/Healthy Paws filings, reported via WhiskerCover and NJ Spotlight News
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Pet Insurance Model Act
- North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA)
Sarah researches and writes PetCoverToday's guides, checking every cost figure, coverage term, and policy rule directly against insurers' own published pages and, where relevant, veterinary and industry sources. PetCoverToday is an independent research resource, not a licensed insurance agency, and does not sell policies directly. Read more about how we research and fact-check every guide.