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Every pet insurance review scores the same things: price, reimbursement, waiting periods, exclusions. Nationwide would score respectably on most of them.
None of that is the reason this review exists. In 2025, Nationwide moved to non-renew roughly 100,000 pet insurance policies, citing the rising cost of veterinary care. A federal class action filed in June 2025 alleges the affected block ran between 100,000 and 300,000 Whole Pet with Wellness policies. A year earlier, in July 2024, the company had already declined to renew legacy Major Medical policies in California.
That introduces a buying criterion almost nobody lists: will this company still want your business in three years? This Nationwide pet insurance review is mostly about that question.
This is general information, not veterinary or financial advice. Always confirm coverage details directly with your insurer and consult your vet for diagnosis and treatment decisions.
Why Non-Renewal Is Worse Than It Sounds
If your car insurer drops you, you shop for another one and your car is exactly as insurable as it was yesterday.
Pet insurance doesn’t work that way, and this is the whole point.
Everything your dog has been diagnosed with while insured becomes a pre-existing condition at the next carrier. A dog who developed diabetes in year three under one policy is uninsurable for diabetes at every company afterward. So a non-renewal doesn’t return you to the market — it returns you to the market minus whatever you’ve been claiming for.
The owners hurt worst are exactly the ones who used the product as intended: long-tenured customers with chronic conditions. The mechanism is explained in pre-existing conditions, and it’s why continuity has value that a price comparison can’t express.
Nationwide’s own statements indicate the state-level measures complied with law and contract and weren’t based on a pet’s age, breed or claims history. Take that at face value — it doesn’t change the outcome for a household whose policy ended.
What Nationwide Still Offers
To be fair to the carrier, because fairness is the point of a review.
Nationwide remains one of the largest pet insurers in the US, with a long operating history and something no competitor matches: coverage for birds and exotic pets. If you have a parrot, a rabbit or a reptile, Nationwide is frequently the only mainstream option, and that’s a genuine service to a market nobody else serves.
Its dog and cat plans are conventional accident-and-illness products, historically with wellness-inclusive tiers — the Whole Pet with Wellness line at the center of the litigation was widely distributed through employer benefit programs.
The Recommendation, and the Reasoning
For a dog or cat in 2026, we can’t put Nationwide on a shortlist. Not because the policy is bad, but because the carrier has recently demonstrated willingness to exit a block of policyholders at scale, and pet insurance is a product whose value depends entirely on still having it years from now.
You might be thinking: couldn’t any insurer do this? Yes, and that’s the honest counterpoint. Nationwide is not uniquely capable of non-renewal, and the pressure driving it — veterinary cost inflation outpacing general inflation since 2019 — is squeezing the entire industry. Others may follow.
But we’re choosing between carriers with evidence, and one of them has already done it. Given roughly comparable products, that difference decides it.
If you have an exotic pet, the calculus flips, because the alternative is usually no coverage at all. Buy it, and keep your own records meticulously.
What to Do If You’ve Been Non-Renewed
- Don’t let coverage lapse while you shop. A gap is its own problem, and anything diagnosed during it is pre-existing everywhere.
- Request your dog’s complete medical records now, before you apply elsewhere. You need to know precisely what a new underwriter will see.
- Ask each new carrier about curable pre-existing conditions by condition, in writing. Some resolved conditions can come back into coverage after a symptom-free window — that rule is the most valuable thing available to you right now, and it’s explained in curable pre-existing conditions.
- Reconsider structure, not just carrier. If your dog now has an uninsurable chronic condition, a high-deductible catastrophic policy plus a dedicated fund may beat a conventional plan — the math is in pet insurance vs. an emergency fund.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Nationwide cancel pet insurance policies? It moved to non-renew approximately 100,000 policies across 2025, citing veterinary cost increases. A federal class action filed in June 2025 alleges a larger figure for the Whole Pet with Wellness block.
Were specific pets targeted? Nationwide has indicated the measures complied with law and contract and were not based on a pet’s age, breed or claims history.
Is Nationwide still selling pet insurance? Yes. Our reservation is about continuity risk, not availability.
Is there an alternative for exotic pets? Not really in the mainstream market, which is why our recommendation is different for exotics than for dogs and cats.
The Bottom Line
Judge an insurer by what it does when its own economics turn against it. In 2025 we got that data point for Nationwide, and it’s the kind of information that normally only surfaces after it’s too late to act on.
For dogs and cats, we’d choose a carrier without that recent history, and we’d say so even about a company whose policy documents read perfectly well. For exotic pets, take the coverage — there isn’t a real alternative.
If you’re shopping now, start with the 2026 comparison and read is pet insurance worth it for the underlying decision.
Continuity matters most for the dogs least able to be re-insured. Dachshunds with IVDD and English Bulldogs are the two profiles where losing a policy does the most damage.
Sources & Methodology
The 2025 non-renewal of approximately 100,000 policies, the June 2025 federal class action concerning Whole Pet with Wellness policies, and the July 2024 non-renewal of legacy Major Medical policies in California are drawn from contemporaneous news reporting and industry coverage. Nationwide’s characterization of the state-level measures reflects statements attributed to the company. Veterinary cost inflation outpacing general inflation since 2019 reflects American Veterinary Medical Association observations. This article makes no claim about the merits of pending litigation. We have no commercial relationship with Nationwide, and no carrier reviewed here paid for or reviewed this article.
Last reviewed and updated: September 2026