The renewal notice is where most pet insurance regret starts. A policy that looked reasonable at enrollment costs meaningfully more three years later, and nothing about the pet has changed except its age. Both drivers behind that increase sit in public data, and both are structural. This page shows the numbers, then makes the case against buying insurance at all, because for some owners the rising premium is the argument that decides it.
Why did my pet insurance premium go up this year?
Your premium went up because two separate things changed: your pet got a year older, and veterinary prices rose. The first moves your pet into a higher risk class. The second lifts the price of every class at once.
Both land in the same renewal number, which is why the increase feels larger than either driver alone would explain. Separating them is useful, because only one of them ever slows down. Aging is predictable and finite. Veterinary inflation is neither.
How fast are veterinary costs actually rising?
Veterinary services have run at a seven-year average of around 6.5 percent a year, the highest of all pet spending categories, according to BLS consumer price index data reported by PetfoodIndustry in March 2026. The same analysis puts veterinary services up around 55.5 percent cumulatively since 2019, against 43.3 percent for non-veterinary pet services.
Year by year, the pressure has been sustained. AVMA data reported by Insurance Journal put veterinary cost inflation at 7.3 percent from July 2021 to July 2022. The same series shows 9.81 percent from July 2022 to July 2023 and 8.24 percent from August 2023 to August 2024. For context, PetfoodIndustry put overall pet inflation at 4.3 percent year over year in March 2026 against a national CPI of 3.3 percent. Vet care is not merely getting pricier; it is getting pricier faster than almost everything else you buy. What that does to individual procedures is in our veterinary cost guide, where billed costs vary widely by region and clinic.
How much have average premiums actually risen?
Industry-wide, the US average annual accident and illness dog premium moved from around $675.61 in 2023 to around $836 in 2025, per NAPHIA's State of the Industry reports. Cats moved from around $383 to around $435 over the same three years.
| What moved | Sourced figure |
|---|---|
| Veterinary services prices since 2019 | up around 55.5 percent, BLS data reported March 2026 |
| Veterinary services, seven-year average | around 6.5 percent a year, highest of all pet categories |
| US average dog premium, 2023 to 2025 | around $675.61 rising to around $836, NAPHIA |
| US average cat premium, 2023 to 2025 | around $383 rising to around $435, NAPHIA |
| Premium growth against enrollment growth, 2025 | 19.7 percent against 9.0 percent, NAPHIA |
That last row is the honest way to read the trend. US written premium grew 19.7 percent in 2025 while the number of insured pets grew 9.0 percent, so premium is growing about twice as fast as enrollment. Existing policies are getting more expensive rather than more people simply buying in. One caution on the premium series: it is an industry-wide average across all policies in force, so it blends new enrollments, plan mix, and rate changes. It is a market trend, not your renewal. Insurify separately reports that accident and illness premiums rose 11 percent for dogs and 0.9 percent for cats from 2023 to 2024, which shows how differently the two species can move.
Our own renewal tracking, following identical pet profiles year over year, is renewal tracking pending first quote run.
Is my premium rising because I filed claims?
Almost certainly not: US pet insurers change rates for a class of pets through a state filing, not for you individually. Your renewal reflects your pet's age, species, breed, and location, plus whatever rate change the insurer justified to your state insurance department. Verify the renewal language in your own policy documents, because that section differs most between insurers.
This is also why shopping around after an increase rarely rescues you. A competitor prices your pet at its current age under its own filed rates, and every condition your pet has developed since enrollment becomes pre-existing at the new insurer. The mechanics of that trap are in pet insurance and pre-existing conditions.
Where does the extra premium actually go?
Most of it goes back out as claims: AM Best put the industry's population average loss ratio at 69.1 for 2025. That means roughly 69 cents of every premium dollar was paid out on claims across the sector. Individual carriers among the top ten ranged from 57.1 to 93.3.
AM Best also reported that the industry's net combined ratio sat below the breakeven point in both 2024 and 2025, so underwriting was profitable. Both things are true at once: claims consume most of the premium, and the sector still makes money underwriting it. How that works brand by brand is in how pet insurers make money.
Can an insurer drop me instead of raising the price?
Yes, and it has happened at scale: Nationwide non-renewed roughly 100,000 policies in spring 2024, citing veterinary cost inflation. ManyPets exited the US market entirely in late 2024.
Both events matter to the renewal question, because they show the third option available to an insurer whose loss ratio is climbing. A policy is a one-year contract on both sides. Coverage that depends on being renewed at 12 is worth less than coverage that depends on being renewed at 3, and that is a real weakness of the product for owners of aging pets. The shortlist for older dogs is in best pet insurance for senior dogs.
Is the yearly increase a good reason to skip pet insurance?
For some owners the answer is yes, and it is the strongest argument against the product: you pay the smallest premiums in the years your pet is least likely to claim. The largest premiums arrive in the years you are most tempted to cancel. The structure asks you to keep paying through the expensive years to collect what the cheap years funded.
Three situations where the increase should change your decision:
- You would cancel under pressure. If a renewal five years out would push you to drop the policy, the early premiums bought very little. Leaving at 10 means paying a decade of premiums and then facing the senior years uninsured, with everything in the chart now pre-existing.
- You hold a funded reserve. A 2025 Synchrony study puts lifetime dog care at $22,125 to $60,602 and cat care at $20,073 to $47,106 across fifteen years. If you can absorb the worst plausible year in cash, self-funding keeps both the premium and the compounding. The options are compared in alternatives to pet insurance.
- Your pet is already old and already diagnosed. Rising premiums plus permanent exclusions is the weakest version of this trade.
The case in the other direction is equally real. The increase compounds from the lowest base for pets enrolled young, and a pet that develops a chronic condition at four can pay back a decade of premiums. The full framework is in is pet insurance worth it.
What can you do at renewal?
Four moves are available, and switching brands is not one of them: raise the deductible, lower the reimbursement rate, or reduce the annual limit. The fourth is adding a second pet for the multi-pet discount of 5 to 10 percent. Each trades coverage for price in a way you can measure before you commit.
The move to think hardest about is the annual limit, because the senior years are exactly when a cap binds. Which inputs are yours to change and which are not is set out in what determines your pet insurance premium. The aging side of the increase is worked through in pet insurance cost by age.