Methodology and sources
Breed Premiums republishes premium figures and claim costs that insurers, licensed marketplaces, an industry association and veterinary bodies have published. It never estimates a premium, never blends sources into one number and never combines a breed figure with a state or age figure, because no source publishes that combination. Data version 2026-10-20; every source below was checked on October 20, 2026.
Sources
| Data | Source | What it measures | Source date | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breed and state premiums | Pawlicy Advisor (Licensed insurance marketplace (agency)) | Median monthly premium of real Pawlicy customer quotes across the insurers it sells; the range is the 25th to 75th percentile. The page labels the median as the average. | Pawlicy Data Updated 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed, state and age premiums | Forbes Advisor (Publisher (quote study)) | Averages of more than 478,000 rates from 10 insurers for a pet aged 3, $250 deductible and 80% reimbursement (90% where 80% is not sold), at a $5,000 annual limit and at an unlimited limit. | Audited and verified Oct 1, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed premiums, claim examples | Fetch Pet Insurance (Insurer (own policyholders)) | Average monthly premium across all policy configurations of Fetch's active US policies for the breed, policies from 01.01.25 through 11.01.25 (as written on the page). | Fetch policies 01.01.25 through 11.01.25 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed, state and age premiums | Insurify (Licensed insurance marketplace (agency)) | One-year rolling medians of quotes from 10+ partner insurers (Fletch Insurance Services database); breed rows need at least 8 dog or 4 cat quotes. | Rates current as of May 31, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| National averages, state shares, top claims | NAPHIA State of the Industry Report 2026 (Industry association (all member insurers)) | Average annual premium of in-force US accident and illness (and accident-only) policies reported by NAPHIA members. | Calendar year 2025 | October 20, 2026 |
| National averages, state shares, top claims | NAPHIA State of the Industry Report 2025 (Industry association) | Average annual and monthly US accident and illness premium, 2024. | Calendar year 2024 | October 20, 2026 |
| Treatment costs | Trupanion (insurer) | Averages of real Trupanion member claims (the page gives no period) | Undated on the page | October 20, 2026 |
| Treatment reimbursements | Healthy Paws (insurer) | Average reimbursement Healthy Paws paid per condition in 2025 (after deductible and reimbursement share) | July 18, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: cruciate ligament (knee) | ACVS, Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated July 22, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: kneecap luxation | ACVS, Patellar Luxation (Dislocating Kneecap) in Dogs | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated September 28, 2026 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: spinal disc disease | ACVS, Intervertebral Disc Disease | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated December 28, 2023 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: brachycephalic airway | ACVS, Brachycephalic Syndrome | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated June 29, 2023 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: bloat (gdv) | ACVS, Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated October 30, 2023 | October 20, 2026 |
| Breed predispositions: liver shunt | ACVS, Portosystemic Shunts | Breeds the page names as predisposed | Updated January 13, 2025 | October 20, 2026 |
| Common disorders, French Bulldog | VetCompass (RVC) | O'Neill DG, Baral L, Church DB, Brodbelt DC, Packer RMA. Demography and disorders of the French Bulldog population under primary veterinary care in the UK in 2013. Canine Genetics and Epidemiology. 2018;5:3. | 2013 data | October 20, 2026 |
| Common disorders, Chihuahua | VetCompass (RVC) | O'Neill DG, Packer RMA, Lobb M, et al. Demography and commonly recorded clinical conditions of Chihuahuas under primary veterinary care in the UK in 2016. BMC Veterinary Research. 2020;16:42. | 2016 data | October 20, 2026 |
| Policy rules | NAIC Pet Insurance Model Act (#633) | Definitions, disclosure, waiting periods, free look | Adopted August 1, 2022 | October 20, 2026 |
How pages use the figures
Breed pages lead with Pawlicy Advisor's median where it lists the breed, otherwise Forbes Advisor's $5,000-limit figure, otherwise Fetch's average. Every other published figure for the breed appears in its own table row with its terms. Pawlicy rows for "Pit Bull", "Corgi" and "American Cocker Spaniel" are shown on the American Pit Bull Terrier, Pembroke Welsh Corgi and Cocker Spaniel pages, labelled as Pawlicy lists them. Ranks and medians across breeds are computed from Pawlicy's own figures. State pages show Pawlicy's all-pet median, Insurify's dog and cat medians, Forbes Advisor's dog figures and NAPHIA's share of insured pets and premium; neighbours are the other states in the same US Census Bureau division. Condition pages exist for every breed an ACVS page names; where no source publishes a premium for the breed, the page uses NAPHIA's national average for the species and says so.
Monthly from annual. NAPHIA publishes annual premiums; the monthly figure is the annual ÷ 12 (this reproduces NAPHIA's own published monthly figures for 2024: $749.29 → $62.44, $386.47 → $32.21).
Break-even. Payout = min(annual limit, (covered bills − deductible) × reimbursement share). Insured year = 12 × monthly premium + bills − payout. Break-even bill = deductible + 12 × premium ÷ share. The default example terms, a $250 deductible and 80% reimbursement, are the terms Forbes Advisor used for its quote study. The formula is tested against Fetch's published claim examples (90% of a $3,140 root canal = $2,826 paid) and hand-worked cases in tests/premium.test.js.
Left out, and why
- Pawlicy cat row "Tabby" ($75.07): A coat pattern, not a breed.
- Forbes Advisor dog row "Golden shorthaired pointer" ($46 / $64): Not a recognised breed name as printed (possibly German Shorthaired Pointer); not mapped to avoid guessing.
- Breed premiums by state (planned as /cost/[breed]/[state]/): no source publishes them, and multiplying a breed average by a state average would invent a quote. State pages show all-breed figures instead.
- Insurer-versus-insurer comparison pages: no source tracked here publishes like-for-like premiums per insurer for the same pet that could be dated and cited per page.
- Forbes Advisor's cat-by-state table was only partly readable and has no DC row for dogs; it is not used.
- ACVS's cruciate list includes "Staffordshire Terrier", which could mean two breeds; it is not assigned. ACVS's hip dysplasia page names no breeds. The ACVS elbow dysplasia and Legg-Calvé-Perthes pages could not be fetched.
- OFA breed statistics and CHIC breed requirements load dynamically and could not be read; the BVA/Kennel Club hip scores table had unreadable column headers; Trupanion's breed claim-frequency PDF could not be matched to breeds reliably; three further VetCompass breed studies (Rottweiler, Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd) could not be fetched. None of these is used.
- No insurer-published average cost was found for intervertebral disc disease or brachycephalic airway surgery; those condition sections show no cost.
Gaps and limits
The sources measure different things: Pawlicy and Insurify medians cover whatever ages and coverage their customers chose; Forbes Advisor fixes a 3-year-old pet and set terms; Fetch reports its own policyholders; NAPHIA averages every in-force policy of its members. Trupanion's claim averages carry no period. VetCompass prevalence figures are from UK primary-care practices. Figures are refreshed quarterly; a source's current page governs if it has changed since the checked date.
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