Is there pet insurance with no waiting period?

Not fully. Every insurer waits before illness coverage starts, typically fourteen days. Spot comes closest: in most states it applies a single 14-day wait with no extra orthopedic period, so knees and hips are covered on the same clock as everything else.

Do waiting periods reset if I switch insurers?

Yes. A new policy starts every clock again, and anything that appeared under the old plan can become pre-existing. Keep the old policy active until the new one's waiting periods end.

What is an orthopedic waiting period?

An extended wait, usually six to twelve months, before knee and hip conditions like cruciate tears and hip dysplasia are covered. It exists because these are the industry's most expensive claims.

Can a vet exam waive the orthopedic wait?

At Embrace, yes: a vet orthopedic exam early in the policy can waive the six-month wait. Most other insurers offer no waiver.

Policy basics · 6 min read

Pet insurance waiting periods: every insurer compared

Accident, illness and orthopedic waits differ enormously between insurers. Here is who covers your pet fastest, and how to avoid the six-month trap.

Reviewed by the PetsHealthHub editorial teamLast updated October 2026

Every pet insurance policy makes you wait before it pays. Buy a plan today and your pet is not fully covered today. How long you wait, and for what, is one of the most important differences between insurers, and it is the clause behind a large share of denied first claims. Here is how the system works and who does it best.

The three waiting periods hiding in every policy

Insurers apply up to three separate clocks. The accident waiting period is the shortest, typically two to fifteen days, because accidents are hard to predict and easy to verify. The illness waiting period runs around fourteen days across the industry; it exists so owners cannot insure a pet that is already showing symptoms. The orthopedic waiting period is the nasty one: many insurers make you wait six months, and one makes you wait a full year, before knee and hip conditions are covered.

That third clock matters far more than people expect. Cruciate ligament tears are among the most common and most expensive claims in dogs, running $4,000 to $6,000 per knee to repair. If your dog limps during the orthopedic wait, that knee can be excluded permanently, and at some insurers so can the other knee under a bilateral clause.

Which insurers start coverage fastest

We compared the waiting periods in the policy documents of the eight insurers we review. The differences are larger than most comparison tables suggest, because headline accident waits hide the orthopedic clause that causes the real pain.

The orthopedic wait is the one that bites

If you own a Labrador, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever or any large, active breed, weight the orthopedic clause more heavily than a few dollars of premium. Embrace will waive its six-month orthopedic wait if your vet completes an orthopedic exam within the policy's first weeks, which is a fair compromise. Healthy Paws asks for twelve months on hip dysplasia and excludes it entirely for pets enrolled after age six, the strictest stance we reviewed.

A waiting period does not pause for symptoms. A limp noted in week one can exclude that knee forever.

How to never be caught in the gap

Three rules cover almost every waiting-period dispute we see. First, enroll while your pet is healthy, because waiting periods exist precisely to stop last-minute sign-ups. Second, do not let a policy lapse before switching: a new insurer restarts every clock, so keep the old plan active until the new waits end. Third, read the orthopedic line before you buy, not the accident line. It is the difference between a plan that protects a Labrador's knees and one that does not.

Our verdict

For most owners, Spot offers the best waiting-period terms in our review: one fourteen-day wait and, in most states, no orthopedic clause at all. If your pet is young and low-risk, Lemonade's two-day accident coverage is the fastest start anywhere, at the lowest price we measured. Compare both against your breed's real risks on our breed guides before you decide.