Nationwide Lawsuit Alleges Insurer Wrongfully Canceled ‘Whole Pet’ Policies Due to Age, Medical Conditions

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Nationwide employed bait-and-switch tactics to lure thousands of consumers into signing up for Whole Pet insurance policies the insurer falsely promised it would never cancel due to a pet’s age.

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The 27-page lawsuit states that after paying monthly per insurance premiums for many years, consumers abruptly learned this year that Nationwide, the largest pet insurer in the country, canceled its nose-to-tail Whole Pet insurance product, which the case says covered roughly 100,000 pets in the United States. Nationwide dropped its Whole Pet insurance product purportedly due to “inflation in the cost of veterinary care and other factors,” the Nationwide pet insurance lawsuit says.

The suit accuses Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Nationwide Veterinary Pet Insurance Company and National Casualty Company of falsely promising pet owners that their policies would never be canceled due to a pet’s age and then leaving consumers “out in the cold” given that insurance policies offered by other companies for senior pets would not cover pre-existing conditions or certain pets due to age.

“Had consumers known of the surprise pet insurance cancellations, they never would have signed up for Nationwide’s Whole Pet insurance,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, Nationwide’s promise of experienced, compassionate, lifelong pet care is appealing to consumers, especially given that, according to a 2024 USA TODAY survey, pet care expenses have caused financial stress for approximately 91 percent of pet owners. Additionally, the cost of pet care increased at more than double the average inflation rate for consumer items between 2023 and 2024 alone, with 42 percent of participants in a 2024 Forbes Advisor poll saying that veterinary bills of $999 or less would send them into debt, the case shares.

At the time when proposed class members purchased Nationwide Whole Pet insurance plans, the insurer’s Frequently Asked Questions page stated that it would “never… drop your pet because of age,” provided the pet was enrolled before age eight and the policy was kept “continually in force,” the suit relays.

Additionally, the Whole Pet policy was explicitly stated to cover even extreme medical conditions like cancer and heart disease, among others, the lawsuit mentions.

In spite of this, the complaint claims that when the thousands of Nationwide pet insurance cancellations occurred, consumers across the country reported, largely via social media, that their plans had been unfairly canceled, seemingly due to age or the need for intensive medical treatment.

The lawsuit also alleges that no alternative coverage plans were offered to pet owners whose policies were dropped, as re-enrolling under a new plan would cause Nationwide to consider them new customers and their pets’ medical conditions, apparently a primary reason as to why the policies were dropped, as pre-existing and therefore not covered.

This class action lawsuit against Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Nationwide Veterinary Pet Insurance, and National Casualty Companies seeks to represent all consumers who had their Whole Pet Plan canceled by Nationwide within the applicable statute of limitations period.

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