Embrace Pet Insurance Review: Comprehensive Dog and Cat Coverage

If you’re a dog or cat owner, you know what a financial commitment having a pet can be — especially if your furry friend gets sick or injured. Vet bills can be very expensive, but pet insurance can help cover those costs.

Embrace Pet Insurance offers comprehensive pet insurance to cover most major illnesses and injuries common to dogs and cats. Even the best pet insurance companies typically don't cover pre-existing conditions, but Embrace makes an exception for curable pre-existing conditions.

You can also add an optional pet wellness plan for preventative needs like vaccines and annual checkups.

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Overview of Embrace Pet Insurance

As Embrace Pet Insurance puts it, “We cover pretty much everything, except pre-existing conditions.” Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can get nearly everything affecting your pet’s health covered up to 90%. All policies are issued by American Modern Insurance Group.

Embrace, like all pet insurance, is intended for unexpected pet costs, such as illnesses, genetic conditions, and injuries due to accidents. Therefore, policies don’t cover routine care like annual checkups, grooming, and vaccinations.

But the optional Wellness Rewards plan operates like a health savings account for your pet. Plus, Embrace does provide dental coverage, prescription coverage, and a free helpline whenever you need it.

How Does Embrace Pet Insurance Work?

Embrace Pet Insurance allows you to bring your dog or cat to any licensed veterinary provider.

You'll pay an annual deductible for pet coverage, so once you’ve met that, no matter how many veterinary visits your pet needs in that year, you’ll only pay the copay from that point on. 

PawSupport is Embrace’s free helpline and is available 24/7 via phone, live chat, or video conference. While the “Pet Pros” can’t diagnose conditions or prescribe medication, they can offer guidance on many issues such as possible toxins or poisons, medication concerns, and emergencies. 

You can change your policy (or cancel it) at any time. Just be aware that decreasing coverage may be quicker than increasing coverage — as an increase would require going through the underwriting process again. 

What Does Embrace Pet Insurance Cover?

Embrace Pet Insurance covers genetic conditions, unexpected illness, accidents and injuries, dental care, and curable pre-existing conditions. These may include cancer, orthopedic conditions like ligament tears, preventable conditions like Lyme disease, and chronic long-term illnesses. 

Here are the specifics of what Embrace Pet Insurance covers for your pet:

• Emergency care (including after-hours)
• Hospitalization and surgery
• Prescription drugs
• Veterinary specialist care (behaviorists, oncologists, etc.)
• Less-invasive treatments like acupuncture and laser therapy
• Dental coverage for up to $1,000 annually (gingivitis, extractions, root canals, etc.)
• Congenital conditions or defects (hip dysplasia, allergies, intervertebral disc disease, etc.)
• Breed-specific conditions
• Chronic conditions
• Cancer testing and treatments
• Exam fees for covered accidents and illnesses

For orthopedic conditions, there’s a six-month waiting period that can be lowered to 14 days if you complete an exam and waiver process. 

Wellness Rewards

Wellness Rewards is an optional add-on to Embrace’s other policies. This takes care of costs for things that fall under routine or preventative care: flea and tick prevention, spaying and neutering, vaccinations, checkups, and microchipping, to name a few. 

Other treatments that Wellness Rewards covers are “complementary treatments” like acupuncture, Reiki, and chiropractic for your pet. Training classes, nail trimming, prescription diet food, and dental cleaning are also covered. 

You pay monthly for Wellness Rewards, so it’s like a budgeting tool that reimburses you for routine expenses. The fee is non-refundable and doesn’t roll over if you don’t use the full benefit, so you want to pick the level you’ll use: either $250, $450, or $650 per policy year. 

Accident-only Plan 

Pets aged 15 and up are eligible for accident-only coverage, which can reimburse you up to $5,000 annually. You can be reimbursed up to 90% for veterinary costs with a $100 annual deductible. 

While it’s unfortunate that senior pet illnesses aren’t covered, here’s what the accident-only plan covers:

• Foreign body ingestion (pets who swallow a toy or other object)
• Poisoning
• Being hit by a car
• Cuts and lacerations
• Torn cruciate ligament
• Bloat (a stomach condition that requires emergency treatment)

Prescription drugs may be covered, but check your state’s policy to be sure. 

What Is Not Covered by Embrace Pet Insurance?

It’s also important to note what Embrace Pet Insurance does not cover: 

• Breeding, whelping, or pregnancy costs
• DNA testing or cloning
• Routine wellness exams and checkups (unless you sign up for Wellness Rewards)
• Injuries caused by you or someone in your home deliberately harming your pet
• Avian flu
• Nuclear war
• Cosmetic procedures, such as tail docking, ear cropping, and dewclaw removal (unless medically necessary)
• Incurable pre-existing conditions

Not covering pre-existing conditions is standard across pet insurers, but Embrace distinguishes between curable and incurable conditions. 

They only look at the past 12 months of your pet’s health when determining any pre-existing conditions. Once your pet goes a full year without symptoms or treatment for a condition, they can be covered for it. 

How Much Does Embrace Pet Insurance Cost?

Pet insurance costs vary. With Embrace, policy premiums depend on several factors including where you live, the breed and size of your pet, the age of your pet, and other circumstances like how much coverage you want.

As a rough estimate, Embrace says its average dog insurance premiums cost between $18 and $72 per month, and for cats, it ranges from $8 to $38 a month. 

You’ll pay your premiums, meet an annual deductible, and then pay per-visit copays for anything above the deductible. Embrace also charges a one-time enrollment fee of $25, and if you pay monthly rather than annually, there’s a $1 monthly charge for processing.

Some options for your policy include:

• Accident and illness coverage
• Accident-only coverage (for pets aged 15 years and older)
• Wellness Rewards added onto accident and illness policy

When choosing your policy, consider your annual deductible, the reimbursement percentage, and your annual maximum reimbursement. You should also ask whether you qualify for any discounts — Embrace offers a 5% discount for members of the military, and a 10% discount if you’re insuring multiple pets. 

Be sure you know the waiting periods for your policy as well. Once the waiting period is done, you can submit a claim. Choose a licensed veterinarian and submit your claim by email, fax, mail, mobile app, or online. Embrace says it takes 10 to 15 days to receive reimbursement, and direct deposit is the quickest way to get your money.

Who Should Get Embrace Pet Insurance?

Pet insurance is a good choice for many pet owners, especially if you want to plan for the unknown. You can’t predict when or if your pet will develop cancer or diabetes or be hit by a car, but pet insurance can help you avoid having to make a difficult decision regarding your dog or cat’s care.

Embrace Pet Insurance is a pretty comprehensive option for anyone looking to insure their dog or cat, especially since it covers curable pre-existing conditions, breed-specific conditions, and congenital conditions or defects like hip dysplasia — things that not all pet insurance providers cover.

If you're looking to cover your pet for routine medical care, Embrace may also be an option, since it has an add-on wellness package.

If you're a member of the military or planning to insure multiple pets, Embrace may be a good choice for you given its discounts for those people.

Who Shouldn’t Get Embrace Pet Insurance?

If you have any kind of pet other than a dog or cat, Embrace Pet Insurance won't be an option for you. Embrace also isn't suitable if you're looking to insure a senior dog against illness, as pets aged 15 years and older are only eligible for an accident-only plan.

Embrace Pet Insurance also doesn't cover treatments for incurable pre-existing conditions, so it's not worth purchasing if that's what you want coverage for.

Plus, pet insurance isn’t for everyone. You might prefer to handle vet expenses without going through an insurance carrier like Embrace. 

You may prefer to set aside money in a designated savings account for Fido or Fluffy. That enables you to have cash for pet injuries or illnesses as they arise, without wasting money on a policy that you might never use. 

You may also choose to skip pet insurance if your income and/or savings are sufficient to manage any large veterinary bills. 

Alternatives to Embrace Pet Insurance

There are quite a few competitors in the pet insurance market. If you decide to get pet insurance, here are three good alternatives to Embrace Pet Insurance (and it’s a good idea to compare several options when choosing your insurer). 

Embrace Pet Insurance vs. Healthy Paws

Embrace has a 12-month medical records requirement, while Healthy Paws requires a full medical history. (That’s less helpful if your pet has pre-existing conditions.) 

Here are a few other features that Embrace offers, but Healthy Paws does not:

• 24/7 helpline
• Hip dysplasia coverage on accident and illness policies
• International coverage 
• Flexible wellness plan
• More coverage and additional office visits for senior pets
• No sweeping cancer exclusions
• No dental illness coverage

However, Healthy Paws, like Embrace, offers alternative treatments and coverage of genetic conditions. Plus, Healthy Paws doesn’t cap payouts on any of their plans, while Embrace does have some annual caps. 

Embrace Pet Insurance vs. Pets Best

These are a few of the ways that Embrace shines a bit brighter than Pets Best. Unlike Pets Best, Embrace coverage: 

• Does not exclude any illnesses
• Does not exclude any accidents from the accident-only plan
• Allows extra coverage for older pets
• Covers exam fees
• Covers internal and external parasites 

Pets Best does have a lot going for it, like ease of filing claims via apps, and a 24/7 pet helpline with access to veterinary experts. It also doesn’t have upper age limits on the accident and illness plans.

Embrace Pet Insurance vs. Nationwide

Embrace and Nationwide’s WholePet insurance coverage share a lot in common. Both offer:

• One comprehensive policy
• No exclusions for specific breeds
• No sweeping orthopedic exclusions
• No illness exclusions
• Coverage of congenital conditions, preventable conditions, and hip dysplasia on all accident and illness plans
• Reimbursement of a percentage of the vet bill

There are a few key differences. Embrace offers medical waste fee coverage, accepts pre-certifications, and its wellness plan covers grooming, while Nationwide does not. Plus, Nationwide may set limits on categories within its wellness plan, while Embrace only imposes an annual maximum on wellness as a whole. 

Final Thoughts

Embrace Pet Insurance is one of the more comprehensive pet insurance providers out there. Since it covers things like curable pre-existing conditions and offers a wellness add-on for general pet healthcare, it can cover pretty much any need your dog or cat may have.

Just be sure to compare it against other pet insurance options to make sure the plan options, premiums, and deductibles suit your budget. As well, if you have an exotic pet, you'll need to get a different provider.

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