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Jump to: Fast Facts | Benefits and Drawbacks | Coverage | Cost | Reviews | Our Recommendation | FAQs | Methodology
Looking to enroll your furriest family member in a pet insurance plan? You may want to consider Lemonade, an insurer known for its tech-driven approach to customer service.
We dedicated hundreds of hours to researching pet insurance policies, consulting with experts, and scouring customer reviews to determine the top pet insurance companies. Use our Lemonade review to compare its coverage, quotes process, and pros and cons to decide if it’s the right choice for you.
Fast Facts About Lemonade
- Founded: 2015
- State Availability: 37 states
- Standout Coverage: Preventative care packages for puppies and kittens
- Get a Quick Quote: Visit Lemonade site
Benefits and Drawbacks of Lemonade
Consider some of the key advantages and disadvantages of Lemonade pet insurance.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
|
Has a unique charitable giveback program that donates unused premiums |
Doesn’t cover behavioral therapy |
|
Offers a short two-day waiting period for accidents |
Has limited state availability |
|
Provides several wellness plans for routine care |
Lemonade Plans, Coverages, and Exclusions
Take a look at Lemonade’s pet insurance plans to learn what’s covered and excluded by its policies.
Accidents and Illness
When your dog or cat gets injured or becomes ill, Lemonade’s accident and illness plan covers some of the following costs:
- Diagnostics: Urine tests, blood work, X-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, CT scans, and general labwork.
- Procedures: Surgery, specialty or emergency care, and hospitalization related to accidents and injuries.
- Medications: Injections and prescription medications for accidents and illnesses.
Some commonly covered conditions include general sickness, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, cuts, toxic ingestions, broken bones, and chronic conditions, like allergies.
Lemonade offers up to $100,000 of coverage annually and reimburses as much as 90% of covered claims.
Vet Visits
Some pet insurance companies cover vet visit exam fees in their standard policies, while others exclude it altogether. Lemonade offers this coverage as an inexpensive add-on, which you can select at checkout during the quote process.
Physical Therapy
If your pup takes an ambitious leap from the couch and injures its knee, Lemonade’s accident and illness plan will cover the cost to treat it. Lemonade does not, however, include physical therapy and alternative treatments in its basic policies. With this add-on, physical therapy —including treatments like acupuncture, chiropractic care, and hydrotherapy—is covered.
Dental Illness
While Lemonade’s standard accident and illness plan doesn’t cover dental care, you can purchase it as an affordable add-on. The dental illness rider covers gingivitis, root canals, extractions, and periodontal disease.
End-of-life and Remembrance
Similar to final expense life insurance for humans, this add-on helps offset the cost of euthanasia, cremation or burial, and commemorative items when your pet dies.
Preventative Care
Lemonade offers a variety of preventative care coverage options:
- Preventative: This base package covers routine care costs for annual wellness visits, heartworm tests, blood tests, and up to three vaccines.
- Preventative+: Preventative+ offers the coverage above plus routine dental cleaning and flea and tick medication.
- Puppy/Kitten Preventative: The puppy and kitten package covers two wellness exams, two fecal or parasite tests, spaying or neutering, microchipping, six vaccines, and heartworm or flea and tick medication.
Exclusions
While Lemonade’s policies offer extensive protection for your pet’s health issues, they do come with a few exclusions, detailed below:
- Waiting period claims: Lemonade has a two-day waiting period for accidents, a 14-day waiting period for illnesses, and a six-month waiting period for cruciate ligament conditions. Incidents occurring during this time are not covered.
- Preexisting conditions: Any health problem or illness that began before your pet was insured will not be covered by your Lemonade pet insurance policy.
- Bilateral conditions: Conditions that may occur on both sides of your pet’s body are treated as preexisting conditions. If your dog had cataracts in her left eye before you insured her and developed them in her right eye after being insured, neither side would be covered.
- Routine care: Wellness care costs including annual wellness exams and vaccines are not included in the standard accident and illness plan.
- Preventable issues: This exclusion refers to recurring infections, but also to more extreme cases, such as abuse, racing, or fighting.
- Experimental treatments: Lemonade excludes alternative medicines like aromatherapy and acupuncture from its pet insurance coverage.
- Additional costs: Lemonade excludes vet visit fees, physical therapy, prescription diet food and supplements, boarding, and training from its standard accident and illness plans.
Lemonade Pet Insurance Cost
Lemonade uses its AI (artificial intelligence) platform to create a customized quote and policy to match your pet’s needs. To purchase a policy and see what monthly premiums you can expect, you’ll need to provide your address and a few details about your pet’s health. From there, Lemonade will provide you with a quote and offer you the option to adjust your coverage amounts and select add-ons.
Pet insurance costs are based on a handful of factors, including your location and your pet’s age, species, and breed. Lemonade strikes a balance by offering affordability without sacrificing the quality of its coverage or user experience.
What Other Pet Owners Say About Lemonade
During our analysis of Lemonade, we reviewed more than 100 customer reviews to gauge how policyholders feel about their coverage. We found that Lemonade has a relatively high level of customer satisfaction.
Positive customer reviews praised Lemonade’s prompt and straightforward claims process and its comprehensive coverage with routine care benefits. Some complaints centered around Lemonade’s denial of claims due to preexisting conditions, which is common across the pet insurance industry.
It’s also important to note that Lemonade is currently involved in a class-action lawsuit regarding its storage of biometric data, as policyholders are required to submit a brief video when filing a claim. We still confidently recommend Lemonade for its high customer satisfaction, streamlined user experience, quality coverage, and charitable initiatives.
See what customers have to say about the company in these Lemonade pet insurance reviews:
“Lemonade has been an incredible resource for our family. Our fur baby, Kona, was diagnosed with heartworm disease. The treatments are expensive, but Lemonade made it extremely easy to submit claims and we had the reimbursements in our bank account within days. The process is simple, and communications are quick and thorough. We highly recommend Lemonade to anyone.” —Camille S. via Trustpilot
“I was researching pet insurance prior to adopting my new pup Cooper. I came across Lemonade. I compared different companies, and I liked what Lemonade had to offer. They are very easy to deal with, simple to file a claim, reimbursements are quick. My friend now uses them and is happy with them as well.” —Jacqueline O. via Trustpilot
“I wish there was more human contact. I did get a human claims adjuster, and my claim was paid. So far so good.” —Julie R. via Trustpilot
“Their customer service is always stellar. But their pet policies are lacking. They told me they’re working on expanding the coverage for puppies. But as of now, what they cover and what is required to keep your puppies healthy are not on the same page.” —Suz M. via Trustpilot
Our Recommendation
Lemonade is one of our top recommendations for pet health insurance, scoring high in our review of the nation’s best pet insurance companies. It’s an ideal pick for pet parents looking for easy policy management with a straightforward mobile app and online resources.
While Lemonade has millions of policyholders, it isn’t the right fit for everyone. To ensure your four-legged friend gets the coverage they need, we recommend comparing quotes from at least three pet insurance providers before purchasing a policy.
Lemonade Pet Insurance FAQ
Does Lemonade cover all vets?
Lemonade covers treatments from all licensed vets in the United States.
Who is the underwriter for Lemonade Pet Insurance?
Lemonade Insurance Agency, LLC underwrites Lemonade pet insurance. The agency also underwriters auto, life, homeowners, and renters insurance.
Does Lemonade cover microchipping?
Lemonade’s standard accident and illness plan does not cover microchipping, but its preventative care plans for puppies and kittens do.
What is Lemonade Giveback?
Giveback is Lemonade’s charitable initiative that donates your unused premiums to a charity of your choice each year after taking a flat rate for overhead costs. Lemonade donated more than $2.3 million to organizations in need in 2021 with its unique business model.
How We Chose the Top Pet Insurance Providers
Our team researched and reviewed more than a dozen pet insurance companies, analyzing customer reviews, comparing policies, and consulting with industry experts.
In our exhaustive review, we honed in on the following factors:
- Quality of coverage: First and foremost, we focused on the types and amounts of coverage available from each provider, comparing conditions and treatments covered by each policy.
- Customization: We then looked at each company’s plan options. The more annual deductibles and reimbursements, high annual coverage limits, and add-ons a provider had, the better it scored.
- Brand reputation: We heavily considered each company’s trustworthiness, looking at its BBB ratings, number of years in business, and customer reviews.
- User experience: We also used customer reviews to assess each pet insurance company’s overall user experience. Additionally, we looked for a mobile app, online claims center for account management, 24/7 vet helpline, online chat, and a simple quote and claims process.
- Waiting periods: All pet insurance companies have a waiting period for accidents, illnesses, and orthopedic conditions before coverage takes effect. Companies with shorter waiting periods were rated more highly than companies with longer ones.
- Age limits: We also weighed each company’s inclusion of coverage for older pets, rewarding providers that offer plans to elderly dogs or cats without setting a standard age limit for eligibility.
- Cost: While cost is not the foremost concern when you choose a pet insurance provider, we did compare quotes from each provider and factor it lightly into our review process.