How we score
Every number on this site traces to a published-mechanics database, a documented scoring model, and two hard rules. This page is the documentation.
Rule 1 · Bands, not quotes
Every premium figure on this site is a typical published band, never a quote. Insurers price on your exact ZIP, your pet's exact age and history, and your chosen configuration. Bands are the sanity check you bring to real quotes — get real quotes to know your number.
Rule 2 · No medical advice, ever
When a condition appears on this site, it appears as coverage-mechanics framing — how insurers treat it in policy language — never as health guidance. Questions about your pet's health belong with your veterinarian.
The BCScore
BCScore is a 0–100 editorial score across five weighted axes, applied identically to all 8 insurers in the database:
- Transparency30%
- How clearly the insurer publishes its mechanics: waiting periods, exclusion language, sample policies, and state-filing differences. Structures we can verify in public documents score; marketing claims do not.
- Mechanics flexibility25%
- The width of the published menus — reimbursement percents, deductible choices, and how many configurations let an owner tune the premium without gutting coverage.
- Waiting-period structure20%
- Shorter and simpler published waiting classes score higher; extended ortho classes cost points, and published waiver paths earn some back.
- Limits15%
- Annual-limit menu headroom, with published unlimited options weighted for the breed classes where single-claim severity runs high.
- Value10%
- Published band positioning relative to the structure offered — a premium band is only judged against what the mechanics actually deliver.
Where the premium bands come from
Breed pages and the estimator use a published, four-step model: species base band (anchored on the widely published ~$56/mo national average for dog accident + illness coverage), a breed-class multiplier for each of the 16 classes we track, an age-band multiplier (senior classes commonly publish at 1.5–2× adult), and a qualitative three-tier vet-cost adjustment for where you live. The full arithmetic is documented on the estimator page.
Where the mechanics come from
Insurer sheets describe typical published policy structure: public plan pages, sample policies, and state filings, normalized into classes (waiting-period classes, deductible types, limit menus). We do not invent claim-denial rates, customer counts, or payout statistics — if it isn't published, it isn't in the database. State filings differ and menus change; policy documents govern, and every page says so.
Compensation and the firewall
BreedCovered is a free service that matches pet owners with insurance providers, and we may be compensated by those providers for quote referrals; when you request quotes, your request may be shared with them. BCScores and bands are computed from the database before any referral is attached — no provider sees, sponsors, or edits a score. We are not an insurer, agent, or broker; policy documents govern.
Corrections
Mechanics and band corrections get priority over everything else — the database is the product. Contact us.
Questions about your pet's health belong with your veterinarian. BreedCovered covers how insurers price and structure policies — nothing here is medical advice.