Regulating pet insurance and providing a database about animal cruelty are among a handful of changes in state laws that take effect at the start of 2026.
Several companies offer pet insurance, but a new law (HB 655) would create a regulatory framework, including required disclosures, consumer protection and definitions of such things as pre-existing conditions and wellness programs. The North American Pet Health Insurance Association, an industry group, said on its website that coverage for pets — mostly dogs — has grown annually 20 percent over the past five years.
Also beginning Thursday, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will be required to provide an online database about people convicted of animal-cruelty offenses. The database was part of a law (HB 255), known as “Dexter’s Law,” that increased penalties for aggravated animal cruelty offenses. It was proposed after a St. Petersburg man was accused of decapitating his newly adopted dog. More than 200 new Florida laws were approved during the 2025 legislative session. Most took effect July 1.
–News Service of Florida
JimboXYZ says
While I can appreciate a healthcare system for pets, I can also see it becoming just as unaffordable and fraudulent as it is for humans. And a healthcare insurer that profits for a majority of animals that live to be 10-12 years by design anyway. Corporations with execs that profit off the best years of an animals health & being inadequate for procedures that simply aren’t covered.
I don’t think the state law is ever going to prevent the grossest of animal cruelty for abuses, especially that relatively rarer “decapitation of a rescue adoption”. Unless they’re going to sentence that level of human to a death penalty for their act of animal cruelty & abuse that is serially Dahmer-like ? And we know that the politicians aren’t ever going to do that. That doesn’t mean there aren’t cases where if DeSantis were to approve a death sentence that I wouldn’t support those types being put down like anyone would for an innocent victim, think the monster that has murdered a child & other adult victims.
I just think they need to figure out a way to reign in healthcare costs, insurance costs & anything else financial before owning a pet becomes such a massive fraud of people getting paid because a litter of puppies breathes that the greediest had nothing to do with. The Government & corporations find a way to profit & charge for the sun rising every day as it is. Pet insurance has that potential to become that overreach on the normal lifespan of a pet. At some point is that industry heading towards banning Euthanasia, implementing some sort of pet hospice ? And will there be the eventual evolution towards ALF’s, SNF’s for pets too ? Dog pet care facilities that we have for geriatric seniors.