Pet Insurance in Nebraska: Costs and What LB 296 Guarantees

Nebraska is a small pet insurance market with premiums below the national average, and since the first day of 2024 it’s been one of the states where a policy has to meet statutory minimums, under the Pet Insurance Act that the Legislature passed as LB 296. There’s no veterinary college in the state, but there is a nationally accredited diagnostic lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a standing note about tularemia in outdoor cats. The act fixed the waiting periods. The rest of the Nebraska decision is the limit, the exclusions, and the record.

Nebraska’s share of pets and premium: below the national line

NAPHIA’s industry data gives the 2025 anchor: the average US accident-and-illness premium was $836 a year for a dog, about $70 a month, and $435 a year for a cat, about $36 a month, up 11.5% and 12.6% in a year. The statistics page has the series.

Nebraska holds 0.3% of insured US pets and 0.2% of US written premium. A premium share below the pet share means a lower-than-average premium per insured pet, so per NAPHIA’s distribution data, average premiums in Nebraska run below the national average, as they do in Missouri next door. NAPHIA publishes no Nebraska dollar figure, and we won’t estimate one.

Inside the state, insurers rate by ZIP code because vet fees differ by location, so an Omaha or Lincoln quote and a quote from a Sandhills county for the same pet won’t match. Try the cost calculator with your ZIP, and read how much pet insurance costs for the settings that move the number.

What LB 296 fixed for every Nebraska policy from January 1, 2024

As of October 2026, the NAIC’s Summer 2026 tracker lists Nebraska as a “model adoption” state, citing Neb. Rev. Stat. 44-6501 to 44-6510. The law is the Pet Insurance Act, sections 1 to 10 of Legislative Bill 296 of the 108th Legislature (2023), and section 13 of the bill made those sections operative on January 1, 2024.

Under section 6 of the act, a Nebraska policy must meet these terms:

• A waiting period may not exceed thirty days for an illness or orthopedic condition not resulting from an accident. Waiting periods for accidents are prohibited.
• The policy must allow the waiting period to be waived on completion of a medical examination. The insurer may require a veterinarian to perform it and may specify what it covers and how it’s documented. The text we read doesn’t say who pays for that exam, so check the policy.
• The insurer may not require a veterinary examination for renewal.
• The insurer has the burden of proving that a pre-existing condition exclusion applies to the condition in the claim.
• Under the definitions in section 3, a condition the policy covers cannot be considered pre-existing on any renewal.

Across the line in Colorado and Missouri, no statute sets those terms; the policy form does. The waiting period guide shows what the clauses look like there. The exam that waives the wait also produces a record, and anything noted in it before coverage starts can be excluded as pre-existing; the pre-existing conditions guide explains that review.

Nebraska’s 30-day free look and what the act leaves to the insurer

Section 5 of the act gives a buyer 30 days: return the policy within thirty days of receiving it and the premium is refunded within thirty days, unless a claim has already been filed. That’s a full month to read the exclusions, which is where the act stops. Nothing in the sections we read caps premiums or renewal increases or lists which exclusions an insurer may use, so hereditary wording, exam fees, the deductible, and the annual limit are still policy choices.

Complaints about an insurer go to the Nebraska Department of Insurance at doi.nebraska.gov.

Tularemia, outdoor cats, and the illness clause in Nebraska

The Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln keeps a tularemia note on its page: the organism is endemic in this part of the country, the lab sees several cases a year, and in summer tularemia should be considered in an acutely ill, feverish cat. Cats with outdoor access and access to rodents and rabbits are at increased risk, the lab says, because they hunt the animals that carry it, and it can also be transmitted by tick and deer fly bites.

For the policy, tularemia is an illness, so accident-only cover pays nothing toward it, and the illness wait, capped at 30 days here, has to have run before a diagnosis is covered. After that, the workup and the treatment are a standard claim on most accident-and-illness policies if the diagnosis came after enrollment. Pet insurance for cats covers the settings that matter for an outdoor cat, and does pet insurance cover Lyme disease shows how a tick-borne illness claim runs for a dog.

No veterinary college in Nebraska, but the state’s only accredited diagnostic lab

Nebraska has no AVMA-accredited veterinary college, so a case that needs a teaching hospital’s surgeon, oncologist, or neurologist goes out of state. What the state does have is the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center, part of UNL’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which the university describes as Nebraska’s only veterinary diagnostic lab accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, the USDA, and the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, serving veterinarians, pet owners, producers, and researchers. A diagnostic lab runs the tests your vet sends; it isn’t where the surgery happens.

For the policy, the out-of-state referral changes nothing: none of the insurers we’ve reviewed publishes a provider network, so the bill is claimed like one from your local practice, and does pet insurance work out of state covers the paperwork. What the referral does test is the annual limit, which the act doesn’t touch. You pay, file, and get reimbursed after the deductible at your chosen rate; the reimbursement calculator shows what a given bill pays back at different caps. Conditions on record before enrollment stay excluded as pre-existing, even though the insurer now has to prove it, so enrolling while the record is short is still the biggest lever on coverage and price, and how to switch pet insurance explains what a new insurer reads as pre-existing.

This article is general information, not insurance or veterinary advice. Coverage, prices, and terms vary by insurer, pet, and location. Always read the policy and confirm details with the provider before buying.