We recently did a lot of investigation into pet insurance. Seems the frontrunners in Canadian pet insurance are Trupanion and PetSecure. Reviews can also be found here (
Pet Insurance Review - comparison of VPI, ASPCA, etc.) but the website makes little sense in how it's broken down into Canada and US...
We got Trupanion for Cosmo in September. We pay 52.38/month with a $0 deductible and 90% coverage, which is a steal in Canadian terms. Does not go up with the age of the pet. Does not cover routine and preventative care like neutering/vaccines. The same plan now seems to be more like $65 - I guess they increased their prices. Policy states that premiums also depend on local cost of vet care so I think the plan should be cheaper for you.
Policy (
https://www.trupanionpetinsurance.com/Content/files/policydocs_510/TrupanionPolicy.pdf) states no maximums, lifetime or otherwise. I know that US and Canadian Trupanion coverage is NOT the same so maybe the lifetime coverage max is a US thing.
Trupanion's plans are simple in that it doesn't matter what condition, there is no maximum, so from my understanding if your dog eats a nylabone and you need $10000 surgery or if you need to have $6000 worth of teeth extracted despite regular routine dental care they will cover that 90%. Most congenital issues like cancer are covered with the exception of hipdysplasia which you can get for an additional $10-13 a month. You have to have your dog neutered by 1 year of age.
The closest equivalent with PetSecure is their level 3 plan ($71/month) which has 80% payout, annual maximums of $5000 for illness and injury, and a $100 deductible, but you also get $350 worth of behavioural modification and alternative therapy and, as far as I can tell hip dysplasia coverage. Looks like you also get $400 worth of dental (not sure if preventative or accident/disease related). Their level 4 insurance also has some preventative coverage including neuter but the deductibles are very high and so is the premium.
Based on the prices now I'm not sure who'd I'd go with. I get a promotional price with PetSecure since they sponsor the BCSPCA where I work but I think I remember seeing that the promo was only on their lower level insurance.
We've submitted 2 claims now for Cosmo (both in the $100-200 range), both for diarrhea, both were covered 90%, minus vet fee within a couple of days. If we didn't have $0 deductible, however, it would probably not have been worth submitting.
If you can find better coverage with another company let me know! If you go with Trupanion let me know, I think I get something if I formally refer you.