Trupanion Canada | Pet Insurance Review

I've been with Trupanion for 9 years (was called Vet Insurance before.) I've attained coverage for my dog ever since I adopted her, when she was only 3 months old. Been paying premiums her entire lifetime so far. Suddenly, her thorax (chest) and neck have been swelling up, not wanting to take long walks, panting more often during the short walks. Took her to the vet, and sure enough, she has a benign tumour in both these areas. Panicking, crying, and worried, I had absolutely no clue how to even start the whole insurance thing. I called them and said all this too. They were extremely supportive, giving me easy instructions on what to do next. They emailed me to give me the same instructions on the phone, to put in writing, as my mind was frantically worried over my dog. Out of the total cost of $1055.15, we received $755.91 back from Trupanion. As my dog needed surgery for tumor removal, this was %90 covered. It is very clear in the policy that anesthesia, preanesthetic bloodwork, or fluids are not covered. At the same time, dental care needed to be done, and this too, is a policy exclusion (i.e. there's no coverage for dental care and prevention/prophylaxis.) Just as we humans don't have coverage for preventive care (e.g. multi-vitamins, echinacea, Boost/Ensure, etc.), I totally get it with the policy exclusion on preventive/prophylactic care. My claim took 2-3 weeks. So I'm very content. Way faster that any Canadian waiting for their Medical-EI benefits. For those who mention that it takes an excruciating long time to have their claim approved, I advise to speak to your vet/clinic. Sometimes, the vet is extremely busy that they haven't sent all the reports that Trupanion is asking for, that you might need to verify with your vet/clinic that every single form has been submitted from their behalf. I've asked Trupanion what exact papers (word-for-word) is needed from my Vet, and even though Trupanion calls and emails my vet, I still go see my Vet in person, to ensure that me *and* the clinic are doing our part in submitting every piece of paper that Trupanion is asking for. In short, verify and clarify with your vet/clinic that they've sent *everything* that Trupanion is requesting. By the way, when I called Trupanion upon receiving the diagnosis for the first time, I was still at the clinic. Trupanion was requesting an estimate from my clinic. I sent it through my smart phone while I was still in the clinic. Unfortunately, the estimate was handw

I have a dog covered under a different insurance company. The policy covers eighty percent of the medical costs. When I signed up with them they were upfront about not covering my dog's knees for the first six months. This eliminated any preexisting clauses for this condition. Now to Trupanion...A friend recommended them based on a positive experience. They cover ninety percent of costs so I thought I'd use them for my other dog. Signed up, asked them when my policy would be in full force, was quoted a date, scanned the policy figuring they would be like the policy on the other dog...wrong! The dog took a wrong turn in the mud and came up lame. The vet did radiographs and said the ACL had a tear. So I sent in the claim and got rejected. After several lectures from the Trupanion staff I canceled the policy. It seems that in their "not covered" areas are those tricky pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately for the pet owner most times the only way you know you have a pre-existing condition is to have your pet checked, which with this company would include: illnesses or injuries that occurred or began within the 18 months prior to the policy enrollment (even if they are not in your pet's medical records), luxating patella, cranial cruciate ligament tear, glaucoma, entropion, ectropion, elbow dysplasia, cataracts, cherry eye, hip dysplasia. So, in other words, you better know the insides of your dog because this company has a bunch of legal loopholes to jump through so they won't have to cover you.

I have submitted several claims for my now four ear old dog and each time Trupanion has stated that the charges are not covered- they are considered routine maintenance. Although the monthly premiums are reasonable, I am considering switching to another company. I take great pride and concern that my dog receives the very best of care on a regular basis to avoid potential health issues and am very frustrated that this insurance carrier denies almost all my claims.

After 30 year having numerous dogs and cats, I 'finally' learned a valuable lesson! I could no longer handle the expense, especially now that I'm on old age pensions! My Chihuahua, Teeko Julio, recently needed his teeth cleaned! And because of his 'Alopecia', I decided it was time to investigate the cause further, so they did 3 biopsies. He had 12 extractions, including 9 , central incisors. UGH !The total cost would have been over $1500.00 I could never have afforded this amount! The costs re: Alopecia were not covered because it was a pre existing condition. I only paid about $900.00, this incl. my $250.00 deduction. I was so pleased. Toy dogs are really prone to bad teeth, gum disease etc. Now I'm learning to brush his teeth---what a difficulty, but I must do this for both of our sakes!

It has been our experience that Trupanion will stall as much as possible and do as much as possible not to pay out a claim. We first contacted Trupanion to request that a CT Scan for our dog be pre-approved - BIG MISTAKE!!! Because (pre-scan) dysplasia could not be ruled out, we had to pay upfront for the CT Scan. It took two months to get this confirmation from Trupanion that the Scan could not be pre-approved upfront. In the interim - we had to watch our dog struggle and were eating the cost of regular anti-inflammatory pills. In early February 2016, a CT Scan and orthopaedic vet confirmed that our dog had an acute injury (no evidence of dysplasia whatsoever) treatable by orthopaedic brace (which has corrected his limp completely and he will only need to be wear it for another 2 months). We forwarded the full package with report and invoice the very next day to Trupanion and it is now April and every time we call Trupanion for a status update they give us another excuse as to why they cannot make payment - i.e. we need to translate the documents, we need another report from your vet to populate his file for a completely unrelated injury from three years ago (which has nothing to do with the present claim)etc.....it is amazing to me just how far they will go to try to avoid payment - i.e. connecting lethargy from a throat infection from August 2016 to our dog's acute injury from late October 2016. To be honest - we would of been better served creating a savings account for this purpose. We are really disappointed in the way our file has been bumped around and neglected. I don't know whether this has been the experience for others - but in my experience the 100$ we pay a month is not worth this aggravation.