Florida Mulls Bill to Leash Pet Insurance Providers

Law aims to address complicated policies, high premiums, and pet insurance market growth.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
  • 10+ years in insurance and personal finance content

  • 30+ years in media, PR, and content creation

Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.

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John Leach
Edited byJohn Leach
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John LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

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Published March 13, 2024 at 5:00 AM PDT | Reading time: 2 minutes

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Faced with the highest home insurance premiums in the country, Floridians may not be giving much thought to escalating pet insurance costs and potential pitfalls. But some state lawmakers are.

A Florida senate subcommittee unanimously approved a proposed bill that would give the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation authority over pet insurance companies doing business in the Sunshine State. The bill aims to take on unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive practices by companies selling pet wellness and pet health insurance plans.

Rising pet care and pet insurance costs

Pet health insurance is a growing industry.

Nearly 87 million households — about 66% of all households — own a pet, according to the American Pet Products Association. Americans spend about $143.6 billion annually on vet care and products, the APPA reports.

By the end of 2022, pet insurance covered nearly 5 million animals, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. The average premium for pet health insurance has risen every year since 2018, when the NAPHIA started tracking this data.

Proposed pet insurance requirements

If approved by the full state legislature, SB 1338 would establish uniform definitions for common pet insurance terms and require pet insurers to disclose to pet owners:

  • Whether a policy is a wellness program or pet insurance

  • Any exclusions the policy may have for pre-existing conditions or other conditions

  • Details about waiting periods, deductibles, coinsurance, and annual or lifetime policy limits

  • Whether claims history, pet age, or a move will affect premiums

  • The name of the underwriting company if it’s different from the name the product is marketed and sold under

The bill would also require pet insurance companies to improve transparency around claims, determine claim payments based on usual and customary fees, disclose if they require a veterinarian exam to establish coverage, and provide full premium refunds under certain circumstances.

SB 1338 follows a template provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The NAIC passed the Pet Insurance Model Act in 2022 to help establish regulatory standards for the pet insurance industry.

What’s next?

“This is long overdue,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Nick DiCeglie (R-St. Petersburg), said in a meeting of the Banking and Insurance Committee, according to an Insurance Journal report. “OIR does not have a regulatory framework to work in, and that is what this bill seeks to accomplish.”

The bill is now before the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government.


Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content

Evelyn Pimplaskar is Insurify’s director of content. With 30-plus years in content creation – including 10 years specializing in personal finance – Evelyn’s done everything from covering volatile local elections as a beat reporter to building fintech content libraries from the ground up.

Before joining Insurify, she was editor-in-chief at Credible, where she launched and developed the lending marketplace’s media partnership’s content initiative and managed the restructuring of the editorial team to enhance content production efficiency. Formerly, as tax editor for Credit Karma, Evelyn built a library of more than 300 educational articles on federal and state taxes, achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth in e-files from organic search.

Her early career included work as a content marketer, vice president and managing officer of a boutique public relations agency, chief copy editor for 14 weekly Forbes publications, reporting for large and mid-sized daily newspapers, and freelancing for the Associated Press.

Evelyn is passionate about creating personal finance content that distills complex topics into relatable, easy-to-understand stories. She believes great content helps empower readers with the information they need to make important personal finance decisions.

John Leach
Edited byJohn LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
Photo of an Insurify author
John LeachSenior Insurance Copy Editor
  • Licensed property and casualty insurance agent

  • 8+ years editing experience

John leads Insurify’s copy desk, helping ensure the accuracy and readability of Insurify’s content. He’s a licensed agent specializing in home and car insurance topics.

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