Pet Insurance in Pennsylvania: Costs Under Act 19 of 2024

Pennsylvania is a mid-sized pet insurance market with an outsized claims story: the two largest dog claims NAPHIA reported anywhere in North America in 2025 were both paid in Philadelphia. It’s also one of the states that enacted the NAIC model law early, in 2024, so the waiting period and renewal rules here are set by statute rather than by whichever insurer you happen to pick.

Pennsylvania’s spot on the premium ladder

The national anchor, from NAPHIA’s industry data: the average US accident-and-illness premium in 2025 was $836 a year for dogs, about $70 a month, and $435 a year for cats, about $36 a month, up 11.5% and 12.6% in a year.

NAPHIA’s 2026 report puts Pennsylvania sixth among states by insured pets, with 4.5% of insured US pets and 4.6% of US written premium. The premium share edges past the pet share, which means the average insured Pennsylvania pet costs a little more to cover than the national average. So per NAPHIA’s distribution data, average premiums in Pennsylvania run above the national average, though only slightly, and nowhere near the gap in New York or California. NAPHIA doesn’t publish a Pennsylvania dollar figure.

That small statewide margin hides a real spread. Insurers price by ZIP code, and Philadelphia, the Main Line, and Pittsburgh quote higher than the central and northern counties. Try your own ZIP in the cost calculator and compare it with the cost guide to see where your area sits.

Act 19 of 2024: the terms every policy must meet

As of October 2026, Pennsylvania is a “model adoption” state on the NAIC’s tracker. The law is Act 19 of 2024 (P.L. 373, signed June 10, 2024), codified at 40 Pa.C.S. sections 4701 to 4711, and it took effect 180 days after enactment, in December 2024.

What it gives a buyer:

• No waiting period for accidents, full stop.
• An illness waiting period can’t exceed 30 days. Waiting periods and their requirements must be clearly and prominently disclosed before you buy.
• Policies must offer to waive the waiting period after a medical examination, and the insurer may require that a veterinarian perform it.
• No waiting period at renewal, and a condition the policy covers can’t be reclassified as pre-existing when you renew.
• A statutory definition of pre-existing condition: one for which, before the policy’s effective date or during a waiting period, there was veterinary advice, treatment, or signs or symptoms supported by verifiable sources. Insurers must also disclose that the documentation from a vet exam may itself lead to a pre-existing exclusion.

That last point deserves a pause. The exam that waives your waiting period produces a record, and anything noted in that record before coverage starts can be excluded. The law makes insurers tell you that up front; it doesn’t stop it from happening. The pre-existing conditions guide explains what to expect from that review.

What Act 19 doesn’t do is regulate price. It sets no cap on starting premiums or renewal increases, and it doesn’t prohibit pre-existing exclusions, hereditary exclusions, or annual limits. Those remain policy choices, which is why the waiting period is now the easy part of a Pennsylvania policy and the exclusions section is still the hard part.

Complaints about an insurer go to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department at insurance.pa.gov.

Tick country and the illness clause

Tick-borne disease is concentrated in the Northeast, and Pennsylvania is deep in it: Lyme, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis are all realistic diagnoses for a dog that hikes the state parks, hunts, or just lives next to a wood line in Chester or Centre County. Each is an illness, so each falls behind the illness waiting period, which Act 19 now caps at 30 days.

Treatment for a tick-borne infection, from the diagnostic bloodwork through antibiotics and any follow-up for complications, is a standard illness claim on most accident-and-illness policies once the wait has passed and if the diagnosis came after enrollment. Tick preventives and the Lyme vaccine are routine care, which the core policy doesn’t cover; the vaccinations guide explains how to decide whether a wellness add-on is worth the money for a dog with heavy tick exposure.

Ryan Hospital and the limit that has to match it

Pennsylvania’s AVMA-accredited veterinary college is the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, whose small-animal teaching hospital, Ryan Veterinary Hospital, is in Philadelphia. It’s where referral cases from across the state and beyond go for oncology, cardiology, neurology, and advanced surgery, and where the undiagnosed cases end up when the local workup runs out of road.

That’s exactly the kind of care the annual limit has to be sized for. A specialist case can run through a modest cap in weeks, and the deductible, which gets most of the attention when people shop, matters far less to the outcome than the cap does. The reimbursement calculator shows the split at different limits.

Two Philadelphia claims at the top of the national list

NAPHIA’s 2026 report lists the largest claims paid in 2025 across North America, and Philadelphia holds the top two dog entries. A 3-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog had a $66,600 claim for an undiagnosed chronic illness. A 6-year-old medium mixed-breed dog had a $56,700 claim for acute renal failure.

A three-year-old and a six-year-old, one pedigree and one mixed breed, neither with a diagnosis that any breed guide would have flagged. Both are the argument for buying the higher cap while the dog is young and the premium is low, and for keeping it.

Where the state law stops and the policy begins

Act 19 fixes the waiting periods and the renewal rules. Everything else works the way it does nationally. You pay the vet, and the insurer reimburses a percentage of the covered bill after your deductible; reimbursement explained and the deductible guide cover the arithmetic. Conditions on record before enrollment stay excluded, and Pennsylvania’s statute now defines that in writing, so enrolling while the record is short is still the biggest lever on both coverage and price. If you’re weighing a switch at renewal, how to switch pet insurance explains what moving costs you under that same pre-existing rule. The law has read the waiting period clause for you. The exclusions, you still read yourself.

For the tick-borne illness the state is known for, see does pet insurance cover Lyme disease.

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.