Embrace Pet Insurance: conditions that affect your policy issue

In most cases, we will issue you a policy for your dog or cat no matter what pre-existing conditions he or she might have. For example, if your dog has a skin condition, we can issue you an accident and illness policy as long as he is within the applicable age range and the skin condition is listed as a pre-existing condition.

However, there are a few unique pre-existing conditions that lead us to only issue an accident-only policy. These are:

• Diabetes
• Cushing's Disease
• FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus – cats only)
• FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis – cats only)
• FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus – cats only)

The reason for this exclusion list for illness coverage is that these conditions have such an impact on the overall body systems of a cat or dog, it is very hard to tell what is and what isn't caused by the pre-existing illness and a lot of conditions would be excluded. This makes for a very poor experience all round if the majority of claims is denied.

At least by telling you from the start how things stand, you only pay for the accident coverage and you know up front what you are getting.

There are also a couple of other conditions that need special note.

Hyperthyroidism: if your pet has ever been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, we can offer you an illness policy (assuming all other terms and conditions are met); however, any treatments or medications related to hyperthyroidism are not covered under your policy (as you'd expect). In addition, hyperthyroidism can contribute to kidney problems, high blood pressure, and heart problems and we do not cover these conditions under your policy if hyperthyroidism is a pre-existing condition, no matter what the cause is determined to be.

Cancer: if your pet has ever been diagnosed with cancer, we can also offer you an illness policy (as long as all other terms and conditions are met); however, we will not cover future incidences of cancer of any type and location.

Again, we tell you this up front so you are clear what you are buying.