The Paw Bill

How We Check

Where The Paw Bill gets its pet insurance, credit, vet and rabies rules and figures, how each is dated, why some rows say not confirmed, and our rechecks.

The rules around pet insurance are new and still moving. There is no federal pet insurance law, so every rule is a state’s. California rewrote its statute from 1 January 2025. Florida’s, Hawaii’s and Rhode Island’s took effect on 1 January 2026. New Jersey’s starts on 1 January 2027. New York’s bill had passed both houses but had not been sent to the governor when we read its record on 12 November 2026. A rule from an old article can leave someone thinking they have 30 days to send a policy back when their state gives 15, or none. This page sets out where our rules and figures come from, how we date them, why some rows say “not confirmed” or “not read”, what we leave out on purpose, how often we recheck, and where our limits are.

General information about costs, insurance and the rules, not veterinary, legal, insurance, tax or financial advice. Your vet decides what care is right for your pet; your policy’s wording and your insurer decide what a claim pays; your card or loan agreement decides what credit costs.

Where rules and figures come from

We go to the body that makes the rule or publishes the figure, and link it at the claim:

  • State statutes and rules, in official text, by section: each state’s pet insurance statute, veterinary practice act and board rules, lien and abandonment statutes and rabies law, read on the legislature’s, code reviser’s or secretary of state’s own site, and quoted with the section number and the day we read it.
  • State insurance departments: for how to complain about an insurer and for the department’s own bulletins. Where a department’s page still describes practices that the state’s newer statute has changed, we say the page is out of date and give its date.
  • Federal credit rules: Regulation Z (12 CFR part 1026) in the eCFR, quoted with its “up to date as of” date; the Federal Register for what changed; and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s reports and orders, each with its date.
  • The Federal Trade Commission: its orders and reports, used as dated background only.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics, by series and month: the consumer price index for veterinarian services (series CUUR0000SS62054) beside the index for all items (CUUR0000SA0), the Consumer Expenditure Survey by year, and wage figures from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics by their survey month.
  • The IRS, by publication and edition: Publication 502 and Publication 526, for the few tax points that touch pets.
  • Rabies and travel: the CDC, the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians’ Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control (the 2016 edition, which NASPHV’s page still listed as current on 12 November 2026, with a note that it is being revised), USDA APHIS, and each state’s rabies statute for what is required by law there.
  • State veterinary boards: their rules and fact sheets, named as the board’s own document. A board’s fact sheet is not the statute, and we say which one a line comes from.
  • NAPHIA, as industry data: the North American Pet Health Insurance Association’s yearly State of the Industry report gives average premiums and the number of insured pets. It is the insurers’ trade group, so its figures are always labelled “industry data (NAPHIA, 2026 report, 2025 figures)”.
  • The AVMA, as a professional body’s policy: the American Veterinary Medical Association’s policies are a professional body’s policy, not law, and are labelled so. Its site could not be read directly, so any AVMA line comes from a dated Internet Archive copy and says so.
  • The NAIC model act, paraphrased: the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Pet Insurance Model Act (#633, 2022) is the pattern most state statutes follow. It is copyrighted, so we describe it in our own words by section and quote the state statutes instead. NAIC’s chart of which states adopted it is a cross-check, never our source for a state’s rule.
  • Public sample policies, as examples of terms: how the deductible and the percentage are applied, what counts as pre-existing, how long waiting periods run. These come from sample policies and disclosure documents that insurers post publicly, each named with its form number and date. An insurer is named only as the publisher of its document. A sample shows what one policy says, never what every policy does, and we count the documents we read: “in the six public sample policies and disclosures we read”.
  • Lenders’ own published terms: a medical credit card or pay-over-time lender is described only from its own current terms, with the day we read them.
  • What a procedure is: one or two plain sentences from an American College of Veterinary Surgeons or teaching-hospital page written for owners, cited, and nothing more clinical than that.
  • Never a source: insurance comparison, marketplace and quote sites, “top pet insurance” and “top vet financing” lists, loan-referral and find-a-vet sites, lead-generation and affiliate cost guides, pet media, vet clinics’ blogs and marketing pages, forums, social media and video sites. Not for a rule, a figure, a price or a statement.

Prices have no official source, so they follow a separate method, set out on how we estimate costs. Every source, with its edition and the date we read it, is listed on sources we use.

How a rule gets on the page

Each rule and figure is sorted by how directly it was read, and that decides how we word it:

  • Read in the official text: the statute, the rule, the regulation or the agency’s own page. We state it plainly, with the section and the date we read it. Before a page uses it, the whole section is read again, not just the sentence that matched a search, because the conditions often sit further down: which policies a statute applies to, whether a free look runs from the day the policy starts or the day you receive it, what ends it, whether a deadline is counted in business days or calendar days, and what a vet must do before a lien or an abandonment rule applies.
  • Read only in part, or only in an archived or unofficial copy. It is not stated as a flat rule. If a page needs it, it says what we read, where and on what date. New Hampshire is the example: its official code site refused every route we tried, so its row cites the official text as archived on 17 December 2025 and says so.
  • Not read. It stays off the page, or the page says “not confirmed” or “not read” and links the official source.

Why some rows say “not confirmed” or “not read”

Pet insurance law, records and prescription rules, vet liens, abandoned-animal rules and rabies law are all state by state, and there is no national rule to fall back on. We add a state’s rule only once we have read it on the state’s own site. Some official sites refuse automated access, some post their code only on an outside publisher’s site that we could not read, and some sections had simply not been read when a page was written. In those cases the cell says “not confirmed” or “not read” and links the official code or the state agency.

“Not confirmed” says nothing about what the rule is. It means we have not read it in a source we would stand behind. For the states with no pet insurance statute on our state table, we write “we found no pet insurance statute” with the date, not “there is none”: those rows rest on NAIC’s adoption chart as a cross-check, not on a search of each state’s code. Where we found no rule on a point in the sections we read, we say “none found in the sections we read”. And we never suggest that the law shields you in a state where we have read no statute.

How rules are named and dated

A rule is right only for a certain place and time, so we name the section and the edition, not just the number:

  • Statutes by section, with the day we read them. Nebraska’s free look is “thirty days from its date of receipt” (Neb. Rev. Stat. 44-6505(2)(a), read 12 November 2026). Where the official site gives its own currency note, we repeat it.
  • Effective dates from the law that set them. Florida’s act says “This act shall take effect January 1, 2026” (ch. 2025-11, s. 4). Montana’s 2025 act has no effective-date section, so we give 1 October 2025 and say it is our reading of the state’s default rule for a 2025 act (MCA 1-2-201). A law that is passed but not yet in force, such as New Jersey’s, is shown as not in force, with its start date.
  • Regulations with their “as of” date. Regulation Z is quoted from the eCFR, which showed Title 12 as up to date as of 9 November 2026 when we read it on 12 November 2026.
  • Price indexes by series and month. Veterinarian services prices were 4.6% higher in September 2026 than in September 2025, against 3.7% for all items (BLS series CUUR0000SS62054 and CUUR0000SA0, index levels read 12 November 2026; the percentages are our arithmetic). A page picks one month and says which. BLS did not collect October 2025 data, so no one-year change exists for October 2026.
  • Reports by report year and data year. NAPHIA’s figures are “2026 report, 2025 figures”. IRS publications are named by edition: on 12 November 2026 the current editions of Publications 502 and 526 were the 2025 ones.
  • Lenders’ terms with the day we read them. A lender can change its rates and promotions at any time, so a rate is always “as published on” a date, and your own agreement decides.
  • A checked date on every page. Each page ends with the date its sources were checked.

What we leave out on purpose

The Paw Bill covers costs, money and rules. Some things are outside that, and no amount of checking would put them on a page:

  • What care a pet needs. Which treatment is right, whether one is needed, whether to wait, symptoms, home care, doses, recovery and outcomes are for your vet, who has examined your pet. Where a page compares two procedures, it compares money and logistics only.
  • Whether to insure. Our break-even calculator sets premiums against payouts for the numbers you enter. It is arithmetic, not advice, and it gives no verdict.
  • Which insurer or lender. We rank none, compare none in a table and link to no quote or application page.
  • Your own case. We don’t say what your claim will pay, whether a denial was right, or what date a deadline falls on for you. Pages state the rule, where its clock starts, and where to complain.

How calculators work

Our calculators do arithmetic, not decisions. The payout calculator applies the deductible, reimbursement percentage and limit you enter to a bill you enter, in both orders that policies use, and shows which input changed the answer. The break-even calculator adds up premiums and payouts over the years you choose. The cover-start checker counts the waiting periods you enter from an effective date, and notes the statute’s limit where a state we have read sets one. The vet estimate builder adds up published figures for each line of a bill, each with its source and date. The deferred-interest calculator shows what happens if a promotional balance isn’t cleared in time, and what a fixed loan costs.

Each formula is tested against answers worked by hand before the calculator goes live. Every default that is a price, a rate or a rule says where it comes from and when we read it, or that it is an example or our assumption, and you can change it. Results say “estimate”. They never say that a claim will be paid, whether to buy a policy, what the right price for a vet’s work is, or what date a free look or any other deadline ends. Your vet’s written estimate, your policy and your insurer’s decision, and your own credit agreement decide.

How pages are checked

After a page is written, a separate fact-check compares each rule, limit, date, percentage, section number and price with its source, and works every sum again. A final review looks for errors, gaps and anything that could mislead a reader about what a policy pays, what a state requires or what a credit offer costs, and for anything that drifts into advice about a pet’s care. A page with a serious problem still open does not go out.

How often things are rechecked

  • State pet insurance rows: every 3 months, and after each state’s legislative session. New York’s bill is looked at again in December 2026, and New Jersey’s row changes when its law starts on 1 January 2027.
  • Vet rules and rabies rows: after each state’s session, and whenever a page that uses them is updated.
  • The consumer price index: each month it is quoted. BLS publishes a new month around the middle of the next one; November 2026 is due in mid-December 2026.
  • NAPHIA’s industry figures: each June, when the new report comes out.
  • Lenders’ published terms: once a year, and again whenever a page that uses them is updated.
  • Price tables: once a year, when we read each publisher’s figures again. A clinic’s fee list that announces a change is read again when the change is due.
  • Regulation Z: the eCFR’s “up to date as of” date is read again whenever a credit page is updated.
  • Yearly federal figures: BLS wage data each spring, the Consumer Expenditure Survey each autumn, and IRS publications when a new edition comes out.
  • Sample policies: once a year, and whenever a page that quotes one is updated.
  • Everything else: at least every six months, and sooner when we learn a source has changed.

A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Between rechecks a rule can change without our knowing, which is why each one shows the day we read it.

What is an assumption

Where we work something out ourselves, we say so. Arithmetic is shown step by step and labelled as ours. A date we count from a statute’s words, such as “effective in 180 days”, is labelled as our count. Anything a source does not state, such as how many hours of a vet’s time a procedure takes, is labelled “our assumption”, explained in a sentence, and can be changed in the calculator. We give no “typical” deductible, reimbursement percentage, waiting period or premium rise, because we found no primary source for one. We show named sample policies as examples, and NAPHIA’s averages as industry data.

How we treat claims seen elsewhere

Claims from sellers and other websites are reported as claims, never as fact, and we don’t name a firm when we question one. Some lines you may see, checked as of 12 November 2026:

  • “You get 30 days to cancel.” It depends on the state. Among the statutes we read, the free look is 10 days in Maryland, 15 days in Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island and Washington, and 30 days in the other nine states with this kind of law (New Hampshire’s read in an archived copy of the official text). In most states we found no pet insurance statute, and the policy decides. A policy may give more days than the statute. See cancelling pet insurance.
  • “A six-month wait for knee and hip problems is standard.” Some policies have one: at least one public sample policy we read sets a six-month wait for dogs’ orthopedic conditions. But in the fifteen states with the model’s protections in force, the statute limits a waiting period for illness or orthopedic conditions to 30 days and allows none for accidents, for the policies it covers. See the waiting periods page.
  • “Illinois passed a pet insurance law.” It did not. The pet insurance article was taken out of House Bill 3595 before the bill became Public Act 104-0480 (the General Assembly’s bill record, read 11 November 2026).
  • “Your vet must give you an estimate.” Among the ten states whose vet rules we read, we found such a rule only in Texas, and only for emergency care (Tex. Occ. Code 801.3581; 22 Tex. Admin. Code 573.83). You can ask for a written, itemized estimate anywhere. See emergency vet costs.
  • “0% interest.” On a medical credit card this is often deferred interest. Regulation Z says an ad that states “no interest” must also state “if paid in full”, and must say that interest will be charged from the date of purchase if the balance isn’t paid in full within the period (12 CFR 1026.16(h)). See vet financing.
  • “TPLO costs $X.” No single national figure exists. Posted fees, a lender’s survey and an insurer’s estimate measure different things, so we show them side by side. See TPLO surgery cost.

Our limits

Some sources can’t be read in full, because they block automated access, sit behind a publisher’s terms or have not been posted. As of 12 November 2026 we had not read Mississippi’s pet insurance law in its code (only the 2023 bill as passed), New Hampshire’s on the live official site, or Tennessee’s older pet insurance sections in current text. We had not read vet lien law in Georgia, Illinois, Michigan or Pennsylvania, or Georgia’s rabies law. We had read one lender’s rates only in part, and no insurer’s public benefit schedule. None of these is stated as a rule on our pages. We read statutes, rules, agency pages and the documents a page depends on, not court decisions or every policy on sale. No check catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake. Fixes are logged on our corrections page, and our editorial policy covers the rest of how pages are made.

Before you rely on a rule here, check it with your policy, your insurer, your state insurance department, your vet’s office or the lender, in writing where you can. Ask your vet for a written, itemized estimate, and read a credit agreement in full before you sign it.

Sources on this page checked on 12 November 2026.