The best pet insurance wellness plans of September 2026

When considering your pet's health, it's important to review what your basic insurance plan does and doesn't cover. A basic policy can include treatment for illness and injury, but a wellness plan reimburses you for routine care, like checkups, vaccinations and flea and tick treatments.

It can also cover one-time costs like microchipping and spaying or neutering.

CNBC Select picked the best pet wellness plans to keep your pet healthy and your wallet happy. Read more about our methodology below.

Who's this for? While not all pet insurance plans cover dental cleanings, MetLife Pet Insurance's Preventive 365 plan reimburses up to $100 a year for teeth cleaning. The Preventive 575 plan increases the limit to $150.

Standout benefits: MetLife wellness plans include behavioral training, which many competitors exclude.

Who's this for? Pumpkin's wellness plans are great for owners on a budget: Coverage starts at just $15.95 a month for cats and $20.95 for dogs, which is considerably lower than many competitors' rates.

Standout benefits: Unlike most routine care plans, the Pumpkin Wellness Club is available as a standalone plan without a traditional pet insurance policy. You'll be covered for vaccinations, exams and more, and get 24/7 access to Pumpkin's pet health hotline.

Who's this for? Your pet can rack up lots of expenses in its first year. Embrace's Wellness Rewards plans have annual limits of up to $700, enough to cover vaccinations, microchipping, neutering and more.

Standout benefits: Embrace's wellness plans include grooming, nail trimming and nutritional supplements, which most providers exclude.

Who's this for? If your furry friend is prescribed medications or a special diet, Chewy's CarePlus plan can cover the full cost of prescription food, drugs and supplements on Chewy.com.

Standout benefits: If you select a Trupanion plan through Chewy, your veterinarians can be paid directly by the insurer, saving you the trouble of getting reimbursed.

Who's this for? Lemonade's AI-powered interface makes the claims process fast and easy: File through the website or app and your reimbursement is wired directly to your bank account. According to Lemonade, 50% of claims are settled in seconds.

Standout benefits: Through its Giveback program, Lemonade donates a portion of unused premiums to nonprofits, including animal rescue groups. Since 2017, it's donated more than $12 million to charities, according to the company's website.

Who's this for? Spot doesn't have an upper age limit for enrollment, making it a great option if you have an older animal. Wellness coverage starts 24 hours after purchase, so you can take advantage of benefits quickly.

Standout benefits: This plan includes $25 for travel health certificates each year, which can be helpful if you travel often with your pet.

Who's this for? If you have several furry friends at home, ASPCA offers a 10% discount for enrolling more than one pet.

Standout benefits: The Basic Preventive Care tier includes teeth cleaning, which many plans make a premium benefit or omit altogether.

Who's this for? Figo's wellness coverage includes up to $30 for microchipping and a health certificate for traveling with its plus tier.

Standout benefits: The plus plan includes up to $75 for spaying or neutering, which can go toward teeth cleaning in future years.

Wellness (or preventive care) plans vary, but they typically cover expected costs, rather than accidents or illnesses. Most pet parents purchase wellness coverage alongside an accident-only or accident-and-illness plan, but you can find standalone options.

Wellness plans may cover:

• Annual checkups
• Vaccinations
• Teeth-cleaning
• Vitamins and supplements
• Preventatives for fleas, ticks and heartworms
• Deworming
• FIV or FeLV testing (for cats)
• Microchipping
• Spaying/neutering

Wellness plans typically do not cover non-prescription food, obedience training, grooming, breeding or treatments related to pregnancy.

A wellness plan is more like a membership than traditional insurance: You pay a monthly fee and, in return, your pet receives access to a set number of services, often with no deductible. The price of each vaccination, blood test or other treatment is then subtracted from your balance.

While a wellness plan may cover testing, it won't pay for treatment if an illness is detected. That's why most owners combine preventative coverage with an accident and illness plan.

Evaluate any wellness plan for a variety of factors beyond cost.

Availability

Is this plan offered in your state? Can you pick your veterinarian? Can a preventative care plan be bought by itself or is it attached to accident and illness coverage? These questions should be a part of your calculations when deciding on a wellness plan.

Coverage limits

Be sure to learn how many routine wellness visits you get a year and if medications, prescription food and vitamins are discounted or covered.

Exclusions

If you have a newborn puppy or kitty, you might want to see if the wellness plan covers essential services like microchipping and spaying/neutering. If you have an older pet, make sure there aren't age caps on coverage.

Customer satisfaction

Look up the provider on TrustPilot or check its grade and reviews on the Better Business Bureau website. A major insurer with different lines may be ranked by J.D. Power and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners might have data on the volume of complaints it receives.

A preventative care plan can be a good way to budget for pet care, with predictable monthly costs rather than surprise expenses.

Regular checkups can help keep your cat or dog healthy throughout their lives and enable vets to catch problems before they become more serious (and expensive). But they require a commitment: If you don't think you'll come in for checkups or cleanings, or your pet doesn't need microchipping or spaying, it might not be the right choice.

To determine the best pet wellness plans, CNBC Select analyzed more than two dozen pet insurance companies with routine care coverage.

Carriers were reviewed based on:

• Cost
• Coverage limits
• Nationwide availability
• Deductibles
• Reimbursement rates
• Exam fees
• Customer satisfaction (based on ratings from the Better Business Bureau).

Rates were based on an accident and illness policy with a wellness add-on for a 1-year-old, 50-pound mixed-breed dog living in New York City. The plan had a $10,000 annual coverage limit, a $250 deductible and an 80% reimbursement rate.

We also considered CNBC Select audience data when available, such as general demographics and engagement with our content and tools.

From there, we sorted our winners into the best for the following categories:

• Best for teeth cleaning: MetLife
• Best for affordability: Pumpkin
• Best for puppies and kittens: Embrace
• Best for meds and prescription food: CarePlus by Chewy
• Best for speedy claims processing: Lemonade
• Best for senior pets: Spot
• Best for multiple pets: ASPCA Pet Insurance
• Best for microchipping: Figo

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed financial decisions. Every pet insurance list is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of insurance products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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