Lemonade is leaving its most loyal pet customers behind. New ones get a new insurer; old ones get huge increases.
The short version: Since 2024 Lemonade has been moving new pet insurance sales, state by state, from Lemonade Insurance Company to a sister insurer, Metromile Insurance Company. The old program stays open for renewals only, in at least 17 states. The three largest pet rate increases Lemonade has ever filed are all on closed books: +42.7% in Oregon, +40.0% in Rhode Island and +38.4% in New Jersey, all pending.
What's happening?
Lemonade sells pet insurance under its own name, but two different insurance companies in the Lemonade group write the policies. Until 2024 every policy was written by Lemonade Insurance Company. Since then, Lemonade has filed a second pet program in state after state under Metromile Insurance Company, the car insurer it bought in 2022, and each time it has told the regulator the same thing. From its New Jersey filing:
"With the implementation of Metromile Insurance Company, we will cease writing new business under Lemonade Insurance Company. However, we will continue to renew policies in this program."
A new customer in those states is quoted by Metromile. An existing customer keeps renewing with Lemonade Insurance Company, in a book that no longer takes anyone new.
That matters because of how a pet insurance book ages. Lemonade's Rhode Island filing says it in its own words:
"This block is in runoff, with no new business being written; the absence of newer, typically lower-cost entrants leaves the remaining population increasingly weighted toward older, longer-tenured pets, which is expected to contribute to the observed acceleration independent of underlying medical cost inflation."
This is how a closed book spirals. Healthy pets are the most likely to leave with increasing rates. With fewer pets subsidizing the sick ones, the rates inevitably have to be increased again. Before long, nobody will be left in the closed book.
We covered the same pattern at Pets Best in Pets Best closed its old program in 2023. Lemonade's version is more recent, so most of its closed books have had one rate change at most since closing. The states where it has had time to file show where it is heading.
State by state
The table shows what's going on in states where Metromile is taking over. Rate changes are averages across the book; the range for an individual policy is much wider, and renewals also carry the usual age-related increase on top.
| State | New sales moved to Metromile | Policies in the closed book | Rate changes on the closed book since | Rate changes on the new book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | Jun 2025 | 6,876 | +42.7%*, then 10% a year automatically | 0% |
| Rhode Island | Mar 2026 | 3,098 | +40.0%* | +13.2% (launch) |
| New Jersey | Jan 2025 | 28,860 | +11.8%, then +38.4%* | +4.0%* |
| Georgia | Jan 2025 | 9,599 | +6.3%, +10.0%, then +30.0%* | 0% |
| New Mexico | Apr 2025 | 1,891 | +22.9% | 0% |
| Maryland | Feb 2026 | 11,436 | +14.7%* | 0% |
| District of Columbia | May 2025 | 2,479 | +3.2%, +13.8% | 0% |
| New York | Jul 2026 | 41,419 | +9.5% | 0% |
| Massachusetts | Apr 2026 | 16,508 | +8.6%, plus 10% a year automatically | +10% (launch) |
| Pennsylvania | May 2026 | 27,907 | None yet | 0% |
| Colorado | Dec 2025 | 12,532 | None yet (+10.7% just before) | 0% |
| South Carolina | May 2026 | 5,795 | None yet (+8.3% just before) | +16% (launch) |
| Ohio | Feb 2025 | 6,511 (2023) | None yet | 0% |
| Virginia | Aug 2025 | Not stated | None yet | 0% |
| Indiana | Sep 2025 | Not stated | None yet | −7% (launch) |
| Missouri | Dec 2025 | Not stated | None yet | 0% |
| Illinois | May 2024 | Not stated | No rate filings required | No rate filings required |
* Pending: filed, but the regulator has not ruled.
Five closed books have an increase pending: Oregon, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Georgia and Maryland, about 60,000 policies between them. On the Metromile side, the only rate change filed anywhere is New Jersey's +4.0%. That is partly because the Metromile programs are new, and a new book has not had time to need an increase. But it is also what Lemonade's own filings describe: the customers it keeps are the ones it expects to cost more.
Where Lemonade Insurance Company still sells
The change has not yet occurred everywhere. In California, Lemonade's biggest pet state with 107,084 policies, there is no Metromile filing, and the pending +30.7% applies to new and renewing customers alike. Lemonade Insurance Company also still quotes new customers in North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, Connecticut, Utah, Tennessee and about a dozen other states. There's a good chance the Metromile switch will happen in these states too, but there's always a chance that regulators will block it.
How do I know if I'm in the closed book and what do I do?
The best way to be sure is to ask Lemonade. Otherwise, look at your policy documents or your renewal notice for the name of the insurer. If it says Lemonade Insurance Company and your state is in the table above, you are in the closed book. If it says Metromile Insurance Company, you are in the program still on sale. A quote from Lemonade's website is written by whichever company takes new business in your state, so it is not a guide to which book your current policy is in.
There is not much a closed-book customer can do about it. A new policy, from Lemonade's Metromile program or anyone else, treats whatever the pet has already been seen for as pre-existing and restarts the waiting periods, which is why you can't shop your way out of a pet insurance rate hike.
If you're considering changing insurers, try and get a medical records review by the new insurer before leaving. You have to be very careful about what might be seen as pre-existing.
Either way, the premium calculator estimates what each insurer would charge for your pet over its life, and a rate alert tells you the day the next filing on your book is made.