New policies
Your premium is calculated using a combination of factors about you and your pet. These factors can affect the premium amount up or down depending upon whether we believe it increases or decreases the risk to us, such as the cover you have chosen, the excess selected, the benefit percentage applicable to the cover you have chosen, where you and your pet permanently live, your age and the species, breed, gender of your pet, the current age of your pet, the age you first insured your pet, and other factors related to our cost of doing business.

Renewing policies
Factors that are taken into consideration for renewal premium calculation include your pet’s age, breed, location, duration for which your pet has been insured, claims history, as well as data relating to the health of pets that are a similar age and breed. Each year we review premiums based on these factors to ensure we can accommodate the costs of possible treatment up to your annual benefit limit, in the event that your pet becomes injured or ill.

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Yes, your premium will increase each year. This is for two main reasons:

Reason #1: Just like humans, the older our pets get, the more likely they are to have health hiccups. Cats and dogs age faster than we do, which means that their likely veterinary treatment costs go up rapidly each year too. As a result, the cost of insuring your pet will also increase as they get older.

Reason #2: Advancements in Veterinary Treatments.

The overall cost of medical treatment for pets has increased in recent years due to the increased availability of medical treatments and technology-enabled services and ongoing demand for these services. The treatment options and advancements in technology are providing us with great opportunities to give our pets a great quality of life for longer.

While this is great news for the care of our pets, these treatments come at a significant cost. Year on year treatment costs increase, and this is factored into the cost of pet insurance.

Please see ‘How do you calculate my premium’ for more information about calculation of premiums.

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Every year, we review the cost of everyone’s insurance with regards to a combination of factors as well as claims inflation across all our insured pets. Increases in our claims costs due to increases in the range of available veterinary procedures, or due to an increased take-up of those services, impacts everyone’s premiums.

Your premium takes into account the average cost of care for pets like yours. To provide an example of this, a pet parent with a three-year-old French Bulldog will be affected by the trends we see in our data from hundreds of three-year-old French Bulldogs that we insure, as well as the specific claims history of their own pet.

^{_{Is my premium calculated the same way as my Private Health Insurance?}}

No. Pet insurance does not work like health insurance. Health insurance is ‘community rated’, which means that everyone pays the same premium for their health insurance regardless of their individual health status, age or claims history. This is not the case for pet insurance.

Health insurance providers are able to community rate health insurance because there are many other factors at play in the human health care system, such as Medicare and government rebates and subsidies, which is not the case with veterinary care and pet insurance.

Pet insurance claim reimbursements are paid for purely by the premiums received by those who insure their pets. In order for each person to pay a fair price for their pet insurance, premiums vary depending on your and your pet’s risk factors.

Yes, you can use any vet who is licensed and registered to practice in Australia.

You can start your pet’s cover from 8 weeks of age and before its 9th birthday on Ultimate Pet Care and Emergency Pet Care. There is no upper age limit on Essential Pet Care, so any dog or cat can be insured for accidents and illnesses, no matter how old.

Cover is available for the life of your pet. This means once your pet is insured with Medibank Pet Insurance you will be able to renew your policy for that pet for life and your cover level will not be reduced as your pet ages, provided you continuously maintain the cover and pay premiums when due.

In addition, your policy will not be cancelled on the basis of your pet's age. But you may wish to consider joining while your pet is young before they develop any conditions that may be considered pre-existing (and therefore excluded from cover) prior to the start of the policy.

Like most insurance policies, there are some exclusions and benefit limits to help keep your premiums affordable.

These include behavioural problems, food and diets, pregnancy, elective procedures, grooming and pre-existing conditions that showed clinical signs before you took out Medibank Pet Insurance.

You should carefully read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for a comprehensive list and full explanation of policy exclusions.

Yes, you will receive a 10% discount off the insurer’s Medibank Pet Insurance rates for non-members.  This discount is applied to every year's premium.