{
  "vertical": "pet",
  "insurer": {
    "slug": "southern-cross-pet",
    "name": "Southern Cross Pet Insurance",
    "brand_family": "southern-cross"
  },
  "product": {
    "slug": "freecover",
    "name": "FreeCover (Trial)",
    "status": "active",
    "positioning_summary": null
  },
  "wording": {
    "version": "2025-09-01",
    "ingested_at": "2026-05-17T21:37:31.466987+00:00",
    "pdf_hash": "9298e9da66b6cc1baf14109386eb0bfadb6fe48b9d92ccf095a617f536bc4691",
    "source_url": "https://www.southerncross.co.nz/society/-/media/Southern-Cross-Pet-Insurance/Member-collateral/Plan-documents/Policy-docs/freecover-policy-Doc.pdf",
    "page_count": null
  },
  "confidence_tier": "verified",
  "facts": {
    "exclusions": [
      "Congenital conditions",
      "Pre-existing conditions",
      "Bilateral conditions where the same health condition exists on the other side of a paired body part",
      "Grooming and bathing costs including medicated baths and shampoos",
      "Transport and boarding (such as in a kennel or cattery)",
      "Cages, equipment, and devices, including dog or cat cones (Elizabethan collars)",
      "Voluntary euthanasia of your pet (where you choose to have your pet put down for non-medical reasons or due to behavioural or psychological conditions), or euthanasia due to any pandemic or endemic disease",
      "Disposal, post-mortem, burial, or cremation",
      "Alternative treatment (acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic manipulation, massage therapy, osteopathy)",
      "Behavioural or psychological conditions (anxiety disorders, depression, aggression, excessive barking) and related treatments",
      "Complications from treatment we don't cover",
      "Cosmetic treatment (tail docking, ear cropping, tattooing)",
      "Cruciate ligament health conditions",
      "Dental care for illness (gingivitis, teeth cleaning and scaling, orthodontics, removing deciduous teeth)",
      "Everyday care (vaccinations, microchipping, flea/tick/worm control, grooming, de-sexing, treatment for undescended testes, nail clipping, council registration, over the counter products, cremation and burial)",
      "Extended hospitalisation beyond what is medically necessary",
      "Extra vet fees for information, administration, account fees, postage or couriers related to the policy",
      "Failure to reasonably protect your pet, including cruel or violent treatment or reckless disregard for its wellbeing",
      "Fighting, if your pet has a history of fighting before the policy start date",
      "International treatment (treatment received outside New Zealand)",
      "Medication covering more than 40 days after your policy ends",
      "Preventable parasites (fleas, ticks, mites, worms) and resulting health conditions (flea allergy dermatitis, Lyme disease)",
      "Patella luxation",
      "Prescription pet foods",
      "Screening when your pet shows no signs or symptoms",
      "Specialised treatments (organ transplant surgery, joint replacements, artificial limbs, implants, prosthetics, genetic or chromosome testing, cell-replacement therapies including stem cell therapy)",
      "Supplements (vitamins, minerals, probiotics, nutraceuticals, oil supplements, amino acids, botanicals and herbals)",
      "Treatment provided by you to your own pet (unless you are a vet or vet nurse)",
      "Treatment of an undiagnosed health condition that is similar to an excluded health condition",
      "Conditions related to a declared epidemic or pandemic",
      "Pig hunting dogs"
    ],
    "cover_types": [
      "Accident + Illness"
    ],
    "dental_cover": "We cover dental treatment if your pet requires it because of an accidental injury during your FreeCover period. However, we won't cover dental treatment from an accidental injury that results directly from your pet biting, eating, or chewing an object. Dental care for illness (e.g. treating dental and oral diseases such as gingivitis, cleaning and scaling teeth, providing orthodontics, removing deciduous (baby) teeth) is excluded.",
    "co_pay_percent": 0,
    "species_covered": [
      "dog",
      "cat"
    ],
    "behavioural_cover": "We don't cover any behavioural or psychological conditions, which are things like: anxiety disorders, depression, aggression, excessive barking. We also don't cover treatment related to behavioural or psychological conditions, such as: products or medications, training, socialisation, behavioural therapy, psychological therapy.",
    "annual_benefit_nzd": 2000,
    "excess_options_nzd": [
      100
    ],
    "multi_pet_discount": "Only one FreeCover policy per pet is permitted. No multi-pet discount is mentioned.",
    "pre_existing_rules": "A pre-existing condition is a health condition relating to your pet that you knew about (or should reasonably have known about) before your policy start date, or during the relevant stand down period. This includes any health condition, sign, symptom, or event — whether or not a vet has diagnosed it — to which any of the following apply before the policy start date or relevant stand down period: you have sought advice, or a vet has recommended care, treatment, or medication for the condition; you're awaiting test results or further investigation, treatment, or consultation with a vet for the condition; the condition requires, may potentially require, or would have caused a reasonable person to seek help from a vet.",
    "entry_age_max_years": 0.5,
    "entry_age_min_months": 1.5,
    "waiting_periods_days": {
      "illness": 5
    },
    "renewal_age_cap_years": "No renewal; FreeCover is a one-off 6-week policy with no renewal option",
    "boarding_kennel_benefit": "We don't cover transport and boarding (such as in a kennel or cattery).",
    "per_condition_limit_nzd": "No separate per-condition sublimit stated; overall benefit limit of $2,000 applies per FreeCover period",
    "death_by_illness_benefit": "Voluntary euthanasia of your pet (where you choose to have your pet put down for non-medical reasons or due to behavioural or psychological conditions), or euthanasia due to any pandemic or endemic disease is excluded. No death by illness benefit is described.",
    "alternative_therapy_cover": "We don't cover alternative treatment. Alternative treatments are things like: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic manipulation, massage therapy, osteopathy (or treatments of a similar nature). Note: physiotherapy is listed as qualifying treatment and is covered.",
    "bilateral_conditions_rule": "We'll treat a health condition that affects more than one of the same body part as a pre-existing condition. This applies if your pet has a pre-existing condition that affects a body part that it has more than one of, like a leg or an eye. If the same health condition occurs in the other body part, we'll treat it as a pre-existing condition and exclude it from cover under your policy. We'll do this even if the condition occurs in the other body part after the policy start date.",
    "hereditary_congenital_rules": "We don't cover congenital conditions. A congenital condition is an anomaly or developmental defect that is present in your pet at birth, even though signs or symptoms may not appear until later in life. Common congenital conditions for puppies and kittens are things like: brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, cleft palates, neurological defects such as wobbler syndrome, spina bifida, umbilical hernias, undescended testes."
  },
  "endpoints": {
    "summary": "/api/product/southern-cross-pet/freecover/summary.md",
    "wording": "/api/product/southern-cross-pet/freecover/wording.md",
    "history": "/api/product/southern-cross-pet/freecover/history.json"
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://petinsurancecomparison.co.nz/api/product/southern-cross-pet/freecover/facts.json",
  "generated_at": "2026-05-18T08:27:32.230Z",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 — attribute https://petinsurancecomparison.co.nz"
}