Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: Which Is the Best for Your Pet? (2025)

If you’ve been to the vet lately, you know how expensive veterinary care for dogs and cats can be. The price of veterinary services increased by more than 60% over the past 10 years.^[1] Pet insurance can help you manage the cost, but choosing the right insurer can be challenging.

Trupanion and Healthy Paws are two industry leaders that specialize in accident and illness policies. They share some similarities: Neither has annual or lifetime limits, and neither company offers wellness policies. But Trupanion is one of the few insurers in the industry to offer easy direct veterinary payments.

Learn about Trupanion and Healthy Paws’ coverage options, costs, and exclusions to help you decide which insurer is best for your pet.

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws: The verdict

Both Trupanion and Healthy Paws are solid options for pet insurance. Healthy Paws tends to have cheaper coverage than Trupanion, but it also has lower reimbursement levels.

Despite its higher cost, Trupanion stands out against Healthy Paws in several ways:

• Reimbursement levels: Trupanion offers a 90% reimbursement level and has unlimited payouts. With Healthy Paws, owners can choose a percentage between 50% and 90% for younger pets. For older pets, the options are more limited. The maximum reimbursement level for older cats and dogs is 60%. Healthy Paws also offers unlimited payouts.

• Deductibles: Trupanion allows you to choose a deductible between $0 and $1,000. Healthy Paws offers deductibles between $100 and $1,000 for younger pets. But for older pets, Healthy Paws requires you to choose a deductible of either $500 or $1,000.

• Claims: With most pet insurance companies, including Healthy Paws, owners usually have to pay the veterinarian out of pocket, submit a claim, and wait for reimbursement. Healthy Paws does have a direct pay option, but it requires pre-approval, and it’s only available during the company’s business hours. Trupanion is one of the few pet insurers that will pay the veterinarian directly 24/7.

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws

Compare quotesCompare	Compare quotesCompare
Reimbursement % The percentage of costs your provider will pay for a covered event, after you’ve paid your deductible. 90%	Reimbursement % The percentage of costs your provider will pay for a covered event, after you’ve paid your deductible. 50%–90%
Payout limits The maximum amount your provider will pay for covered events. Unlimited	Payout limits The maximum amount your provider will pay for covered events. Unlimited
Deductibles The amount you must pay towards a covered event before your coverage kicks in. $0 to $950	Deductibles The amount you must pay towards a covered event before your coverage kicks in. $250–$1,000
Curable pre-existing conditions Pre-existing conditions refer to conditions your pet has shown documented symptoms of before your policy’s waiting period is over. Some companies still cover these conditions if they’re deemed “curable” and haven’t shown symptoms for a specified period of time that varies by insurer. Not covered	Curable pre-existing conditions Pre-existing conditions refer to conditions your pet has shown documented symptoms of before your policy’s waiting period is over. Some companies still cover these conditions if they’re deemed “curable” and haven’t shown symptoms for a specified period of time that varies by insurer. Not covered

Data in this table has been sourced from Insurify users who received a pet insurance quote from our partner Fletch.

Trupanion

Healthy Paws

How Trupanion and Healthy Paws compare

If you’re not sure whether Trupanion or Healthy Paws would be better for your dog or cat, here’s how they compare in terms of cost, coverage, claims, and customer satisfaction.

Cost of pet insurance

In general, Trupanion has higher premiums than Healthy Paws for dogs and cats of all ages. On average, a dog insurance policy costs $146 per month, while a Healthy Paws policy costs $44 per month. For cat insurance, Trupanion costs on average $74 per month, and Healthy Paws costs $21 per month.

Your price will depend on several factors, including your pet’s age, breed, your location, and the deductible amount you choose.

Trupanion only offers 90% reimbursement. With Healthy Paws, you can choose a reimbursement percentage between 50% and 90% for young pets. But you can only choose between 50% and 60% for older pets. A lower reimbursement percentage will give you a lower monthly payment, but you’ll cover more of the cost of veterinary care yourself when you have a claim.

The table below shows sample rates for three different dog breeds:

Dog Breed	Healthy Paws	Trupanion
1-year-old French bulldog	$104	$117
5-year-old French bulldog	$197	$216
1-year-old golden retriever	$49	$77
5-year-old golden retriever	$92	$140
1-year-old German shepherd	$49	$87
5-year-old German shepherd	$92	$159

*Sample rates based on a 90% reimbursement level and $500 deductible

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Coverages and plan features

Trupanion and Healthy Paws only offer accident and illness coverage. These policies protect your pet from unexpected injuries or diseases (including hereditary conditions) and pay for emergency care only. Neither company offers accident-only or wellness plans, so you’ll have to cover the cost of preventative care on your own.

The plans differ in a few key ways.

Endorsements

A Healthy Paws policy includes coverage for alternative or complementary care, like acupuncture or hydrotherapy. By contrast, Trupanion only covers those treatments if you purchase its Recovery and Complementary Care rider.

But Trupanion has some optional coverage options that Healthy Paws doesn’t offer, including:

• Breeding: Pet insurance policies usually exclude any veterinary bills related to breeding or whelping, but Trupanion’s breeding rider provides coverage for any complications that occur.

• Pet owner assistance: Pet owner assistance provides extra benefits, such as $500 to reimburse you for advertising fees if your pet is lost, up to $500 in boarding reimbursement if you’re in the hospital, and up to $100 for cremation or burial expenses.

Waiting periods

Healthy Paws and Trupanion both have shorter-than-usual waiting periods. With Healthy Paws, the waiting period is 15 days for injuries and illnesses but 12 months for hip dysplasia. With Trupanion, the waiting period is 30 days for illnesses and five days for injuries, and hip dysplasia doesn’t have a separate waiting period.

Feature	Trupanion	Healthy Paws
Mobile app	Yes	Yes
Mobile claims filing	Yes	Yes
Direct vet pay	Yes	No
24/7 pet helpline	No	No
Online policy management	Yes	Yes
Complementary care	Yes (as a rider)	Yes
Breeding or whelping	Yes (as a rider)	No
24/7 customer support	Yes	No

Policy exclusions

Healthy Paws and Trupanion have similar age limits, and both allow pet owners to enroll dogs and cats up to the age of 14. Healthy Paws’ minimum age is 8 weeks. By contrast, Trupanion allows pets to be enrolled at birth.

A notable difference between the two insurers is how they handle coverage for hip dysplasia. With Trupanion, hip dysplasia has the same waiting period as other injuries or conditions, and there’s no age maximum for coverage.

Healthy Paws has a 12-month waiting period for hip dysplasia. And it won’t cover treatments for hip dysplasia in pets enrolled at age 6 or older, regardless of whether they had any other signs of the condition prior to enrollment.

Like all insurers, neither Healthy Paws nor Trupanion covers pre-existing conditions. And the policies only provide dental coverage for accidents like broken teeth. They don’t cover dental cleanings or routine dental care.

Claims process

Trupanion is unique in that it offers direct veterinarian payments. If your vet signs up for Trupanion’s VetDirect Pay program, Trupanion can pay your veterinarian for your pet’s treatments at the time of your visit. You don’t have to cover the cost out of pocket and wait for reimbursement.

If your vet doesn’t participate, you can still take your pet to that vet for care, but you’ll have to submit a claim to Trupanion and wait for reimbursement.

Healthy Paws typically pays out claims via reimbursement. You pay the vet at the time of treatment and submit a claim online or through the Healthy Paws mobile app. Healthy Paws reviews the claim and sends you a reimbursement payment for approved claims.

Healthy Paws has a direct payment option, but it’s much stricter and more limited than Trupanion’s. You must make a direct payment request ahead of time, and Healthy Paws will only pay the vet during its own business hours. If you have an after-hours emergency, direct payment isn’t an option.

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Customer reviews

In general, Trupanion has better customer reviews than Healthy Paws. On Trustpilot, it has a rating of 4.1 out of 5 based on more than 8,000 reviews.^[2] Customers praise the company’s responsiveness and quick claims handling.

With Healthy Paws, reviews are more mixed. On Trustpilot, it has a 3.9 rating based on more than 2,000 reviews.^[3] But recent reviews with the Better Business Bureau reveal some common issues. In the past few months, many customers have reported substantial increases, with mentions of rates going up three or four times the previous annual cost.^[4]

Trupanion vs. Healthy Paws FAQs