When you search for pet insurance, Embrace Pet Insurance is one of the first companies that pops up at the top of the search engine results. Is this company all it’s cracked up to be, or is it just good marketing? Below we’ll take a look at Embrace’s background, some pros and cons, how its price quotes compare with other companies and the process of getting a quote.
- About Embrace Pet Insurance
- Pros and Cons
- Embrace Pet Insurance Ratings
- How Much does Embrace Insurance Cost?
- How Embrace Quotes Compare with Other Pet Insurance Companies
- How Easy to Get a Quote from Embrace Pet Insurance
- Coverage Options
About Embrace Pet Insurance:
Embrace got its start in 2003 as the Wharton Business Plan Competition winner and sold its first policy in October of 2006. In 2012, it partnered with American Modern Insurance Group.
The company also prides itself on giving back. For every policy it sells, it gives $2 to a pet-related charity. The company also matches 100 percent of employee charitable donations.
Embrace pet insurance policies are underwritten by American Modern Insurance Group.
Pros:
- Covers both accidents and illnesses (many plans only handle accidents).
- Embrace offers a flexible wellness rewards plan as an optional add-on.
- The company is tech savvy. Though the MyEmbrace system and mobile app, you can manage your policies any time of the day, any day of the week.
- Plans are easily customizable in terms of annual benefits, deductibles and reimbursement levels.
- Embrace differentiates between curable and incurable conditions as it relates to pre-existing conditions. If your pet is treatment or symptom-free for 12 consecutive months, you may be able to get coverage.
Cons:
- Embrace Pet Insurance has a fairly involved waiting period: 48 hours for accidents, 14 days for illnesses, and six months for orthopedic conditions. Though this is common for pet insurance. Learn more about Pet Insurance with no waiting period.
- The company does not have an unlimited annual benefit option. It caps out at $30,000.
- Outside of the optional wellness rewards plan, you cannot customize the care you want covered based on tiered plans. Everything operates under one plan.
Embrace Pet Insurance Ratings:
Embrace Pet Insurance currently has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). However, it has a little over a one-star rating in consumer reviews through the BBB. Many complaints center around the coverage being denied due to pre-existing conditions.
Consumers Advocate rates Embrace Pet Insurance with a 4.4/5 (Excellent) rating. They rate it high for customer satisfaction and more comprehensive coverage for treatments like behavior therapy and prosthetics.
Embrace is a ConsumerAffairs accredited brand. It currently has a three-and-a-half-star rating with reviewers at that site. ConsumerAffiars states it is consistently highly rated and the company is a member of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association.
How Much does Embrace Insurance Cost?
We gathered 12 quotes each from Embrace Pet Insurance and compared three locations: Texas, Florida, and California. Also, we compared between Labrador Retrievers, representing small/medium dog size, and German Shepherds, representing big dog size, and we compared between a 1-year-old dog and a 5-year-old dog. All quotes have $30,000 annual benefit and $200 annual deductible.
| Small/Medium dogs | Big dogs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-year-old | 5-year-old | 1-year-old | 5-year-old | |
| California | $53 | $63 | $53 | $63 |
| Texas | $77 | $90 | $77 | $90 |
| Florida | $38 | $59 | $41 | $63 |
Embrace prices don’t shift too drastically between breed, if they change at all. However, prices do jump a notable amount per month between the 1-year-old and 5-year-old dogs, going up as much as around $20 per month. Prices in Florida tend to be the least expensive, with Texas being the most expensive location.
>>MORE: How Much Does Pet Insurance Cost?
How Embrace Quotes Compare with Other Pet Insurance Companies:
To compare prices, we also gathered 12 quotes each from the other two reputable pet insurance companies Figo Pet Insurance and Healthy Paws Pet Insurance & Foundation. We also compared three locations: Texas, Florida, and California, small/medium and big dogs, and between a 1-year-old dog and a 5-year-old dog.
To keep price quotes as even as possible, we also selected the option with the highest annual benefit possible, so $30,000 for Embrace and unlimited for Figo and Healthy Paws. We also kept the deductible in the $200-250 range, as selections in each state would allow. We also set all plans to an 80 percent reimbursement.
- Embrace Pet Insurance: $30,000 annual benefit and $200 annual deductible.
- Figo Pet Insurance: unlimited annual benefit – $250 annual deductible.
- Healthy Paws Pet Insurance: unlimited annual benefit – $250 annual deductible.
Here is how the quotes compare among the three companies:
| Small/Medium dogs | Big dogs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-year-old | 5-year-old | 1-year-old | 5-year-old | ||
| California | Embrace Pet Insurance | $53 | $63 | $53 | $63 |
| Figo Pet Insurance | $56 | $75 | $64 | $86 | |
| Healthy Paws Pet Insurance | $58 | $81 | $58 | $81 | |
| Texas | Embrace Pet Insurance | $77 | $90 | $77 | $90 |
| Figo Pet Insurance | $42 | $60 | $57 | $81 | |
| Healthy Paws Pet Insurance | $36 | $51 | $36 | $51 | |
| Florida | Embrace Pet Insurance | $38 | $59 | $41 | $63 |
| Figo Pet Insurance | $80 | $105 | $86 | $114 | |
| Healthy Paws Pet Insurance | $42 | $55 | $39 | $51 | |
As for how Embrace compares to the other two companies, it’s less expensive than Figo in Florida and California and more expensive in Texas. It’s more expensive than Healthy Paws in Texas, more comparable in Florida and less expensive in California. However, Embrace only has a $30,000 annual limit, whereas both Figo and Healthy Paws are unlimited.
>>MORE: Is Pet Insurance Worth It?
How Easy to Get a Quote from Embrace Pet Insurance:
It’s easy to find where to get a quote on the site, since at the top of the page there is a large, yellow “retrieve a quote” button. Once you click that, this page shows up:
As you can see, it’s an easy, no-fuss screen that requests very basic information. The pet’s breed field is responsive and searchable. The pet’s age field has a dropdown menu where you can select the age of your pet by year.
Once you enter all the information and hit the “continue quote” button, you get this screen:
Embrace Pet Insurance has a very comprehensive quote page that allows you to see your complete options for the annual reimbursement limit, annual deductible and reimbursement percentages, so that’s helpful.
The site adjusts in real-time based on what you select for your options. There’s a couple of seconds delay, but the update is fairly fast. For instance, this is what happens to the price when we changed annual reimbursement to $5,000, annual deductible to $500 and reimbursement to 70 percent:
The quote screen also makes it very easy to review your wellness care options. If you hit “show options,” next to the Wellness Rewards with Routine Care title, you get this screen:
When we selected the $250 rewards option, it shows that it costs $18.75 per month and then adds that to your total at the top right of the screen. $450 costs $35.42 per month and $650 costs $52.09 per month. These are all for the Florida location. It also does a nice job of outlining how the reimbursement plan works next to the rewards selections. Changing the annual reimbursement limit, deductible or reimbursement percentage at the top of the page doesn’t affect the wellness rewards prices.
>>MORE: Pet Insurance that Covers Preventative Care
The only drawback to the Embrace Pet Insurance quote process is that when you’re first getting your quote you get a loading message that reads, “One moment while we venture out to process your request.” It seems to take a little longer than other sites to generate the quote, but it’s not to the point of being an active detraction from the experience.
>>MORE: What does Pet Insurance Cover?
Coverage Options:
As mentioned above, Embrace Pet Insurance operates under one comprehensive plan. If you like more customization, that can be a negative point. But if you want everything simple and laid out in one plan, that’s a benefit.
The company is very straightforward in outlining what it does and does not cover. If you select the “Learn More About Coverage and Exclusions” option right off the quote page, you see this screen:
It’s worth noting that dental coverage is included right in the main plan. The screen lists dental trauma as one of the conditions covered. Dental illness is also covered in the plan.
>>MORE: Finding the Best Pet Dental Insurance
The Bottom Line:
- Embrace has a solid history of being around for over 15 years and is underwritten by American Modern Insurance Group. It’s well-rated online and has an A+ rating with the BBB.
- The company is well-regarded for its simple single plan with comprehensive coverage, even dental. For wellness, routine and preventative care, you have the option to add on different amounts of reimbursement.
- The monthly prices vary drastically by state in comparison to the other companies we looked at. However, Embrace Pet Insurance does not have an unlimited annual benefit option like the other two companies. It caps out at $30,000.
- Getting a quote from Embrace Pet Insurance is an easy and well-organized process. The company does a good job of outlining what’s covered and what’s not, as well as offering easy-to-find links to sample policies by state.