SB927 creates a new set of Wisconsin statutes governing pet insurance and pet wellness programs, largely adopting the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ model Pet Insurance Act. The bill defines key terms such as pet insurance, pet wellness program, preexisting condition, waiting period, hereditary disorder, congenital anomaly or disorder, chronic condition, and orthopedic condition. It also requires insurers and intermediaries to use those definitions consistently in policies and to make them available on the insurer’s website.
The bill imposes extensive disclosure requirements on insurers selling pet insurance. These include disclosures about exclusions, waiting periods, deductibles, coinsurance, policy limits, claim-payment methods, underwriting company identity, and whether premiums or coverage can change based on claim history, pet age, or location. It also requires a 15-day free-look period with a full premium refund if the policyholder returns the policy before filing a claim, and it limits how waiting periods may be used, including prohibiting waiting periods for accidents and capping illness or orthopedic-condition waiting periods at 30 days.
SB927 also regulates the marketing and sale of pet wellness programs. It prohibits marketing a wellness program as insurance, bars tying the purchase of pet insurance to participation in a wellness program, and requires separate pricing, terms, and disclosures when wellness programs are sold alongside pet insurance. If a wellness program or other noninsurance benefit is included in a pet insurance policy form, the bill treats that benefit as part of the insurance contract and subjects it to insurance regulation.
In addition, the bill requires anyone selling, soliciting, or negotiating pet insurance to be a licensed intermediary who has completed training on pet insurance topics, and it requires insurers to verify and retain records of that training. The commissioner of insurance is given rule-making authority to administer the new provisions. Overall, the bill would expand consumer protections and regulatory oversight in the pet insurance market while clarifying how insurers may underwrite, market, and pay claims under these products.
SB927 would create new statutory standards in chapters 628 and 632 for pet insurance products sold in Wisconsin, directly affecting insurers, intermediaries, and consumers purchasing coverage for pets. It would require new policy language, website disclosures, training compliance, recordkeeping, and claim-handling rules, while also limiting certain underwriting and waiting-period practices. The bill would also give the commissioner of insurance authority to adopt implementing rules and enforce the new requirements.
No committee transcript or recorded vote information is available in the provided materials, so there is no documented floor or committee sentiment to summarize. Based on the bill text, the measure appears consumer-protection oriented and designed to standardize a growing insurance market, with an emphasis on transparency and preventing misleading sales practices.
The bill’s main potential points of contention are likely to be the added compliance obligations for insurers and intermediaries, the restrictions on waiting periods and renewals, and the rule that wellness-program benefits included in a policy form become regulated as insurance. Insurers may also object to the burden of mandatory training verification, detailed disclosures, and limits on how they can structure claim payments or underwriting. No specific opposition or support was recorded in the provided discussion materials.