Pet Insurance Reimbursement Rates Explained (70%, 80%, 90%)

The reimbursement rate is the portion of a covered veterinary bill your insurer pays back to you. Most US pet insurance runs on a reimbursement model: you pay the vet in full, submit the bill, and the insurer sends money back according to your policy's math.

If your policy carries a 90% reimbursement rate, the insurer covers 90% of the eligible costs and the remaining 10% - the co-insurance - stays with you. Insurers typically let you choose the rate when you buy the policy, and that choice, together with your deductible and annual limit, defines what a claim actually pays.

The part that surprises new policyholders is the sequence. On most policies, a claim is calculated by first subtracting whatever remains of your deductible, and only then applying the reimbursement percentage to what's left.

That means the advertised percentage is not applied to the full vet bill - it's applied to the covered amount after the deductible. Policies differ in the details (a few apply the math in a different order, and Trupanion notably pairs a 90% rate with a per-condition rather than annual deductible), which is exactly why the sample policy - not the marketing page - is the document to read.

Our guide to how pet insurance deductibles work walks through that first stage of the math.

A higher reimbursement rate buys you a smaller share of every big bill, in exchange for a higher monthly premium; a lower rate cheapens the premium but leaves more of each claim on you. There's no universally right answer - it's a question of which risk you'd rather hold.

A useful way to decide: imagine the kind of bill that made you want insurance in the first place, and work out what you'd owe at each rate once the deductible and co-insurance are counted. If the higher-rate premium difference is small for your pet's quote, many owners take it; if it's steep, a mid-level rate with a manageable deductible often balances better.

Get your own quote at more than one insurer - the same rate can price very differently for the same pet.

The reimbursement percentage applies only to covered expenses. It does nothing about exclusions - pre-existing conditions, and anything the policy carves out - and it doesn't shorten waiting periods.

It also works inside your annual limit: once a year's covered payouts reach the policy's cap, the rate is irrelevant until the policy resets. When you compare insurers, read the three levers together - deductible, reimbursement rate, annual limit - because a generous number on one lever can hide a stingy one on another.

Our pet insurance comparison lays out how the major insurers structure all three.