Yes. A torn cruciate ligament repair, the canine knee injury written as ACL or CCL and the most common five-figure orthopedic claim in pet insurance, is covered under the base accident-and-illness policy at every provider in the reviewed US set. What decides whether a specific claim pays is not the cover itself but two clauses: the orthopedic waiting period and the bilateral-condition clause.
The direct answer
Cruciate repair is classed by every reviewed carrier as an orthopedic surgical claim, payable under the base policy at the buyer's chosen reimbursement rate after the deductible [Embrace: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026-05]. The cost the policy is paying against runs from $2,793 to $6,417 per knee, with a national average of $3,525, per CareCredit's 2025 cost research [CareCredit: How Much Does CCL (ACL) Surgery for Dogs Cost?, 2025].
The clauses that decide whether the policy actually pays on a specific case sit elsewhere in the contract.
The first is the orthopedic waiting period. Embrace applies a 14-day illness wait and a longer orthopedic wait that can be reduced to as few as 14 days only by completing an Orthopedic Exam and Waiver before the injury [Embrace: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026-05]. Embrace also states that a cruciate ligament injury first noted during the policy's opening 180 days becomes a permanent exclusion [Embrace: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026-05]. Most carriers in the reviewed set carry a 6-month orthopedic wait of comparable shape. A policy bought after the limp started will not pay for the repair.
The second is the bilateral-condition clause. Cruciate injuries are statistically bilateral on the cited cost data: the second knee often goes within months of the first [CareCredit: How Much Does CCL (ACL) Surgery for Dogs Cost?, 2025]. The relevant clause treats the second knee as related to the first; if the first was pre-existing, the second is too.
Where the policy clauses bite
A buyer who reads cruciate cover as "yes, the policy pays" without reading the two clauses ends up with one of two surprises at claim time.
Orthopedic waiting period: 6 months at most reviewed carriers; reducible to as few as 14 days at Embrace via the Orthopedic Exam and Waiver, only when the exam is on file before the injury [Embrace: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026-05]. Bilateral-condition clause: a condition on one limb pairs with the same condition on the other limb under the pre-existing exclusion, defined site-wide by the NAIC Pet Insurance Model Act as a condition for which advice or treatment was received before the policy date or during a waiting period [NAIC: NAIC Passes Pet Insurance Model Act, 2022].
The first surprise is the orthopedic-wait exclusion on the first knee. A buyer who saw the dog limp last weekend and bought a policy on Monday is not covered for the repair, because the injury was noted (in the vet visit or even in the dog's behavior on the policy form) inside the wait. The wait does not begin and end the matter; the cited Embrace clause turns a wait-period note into a permanent exclusion.
The second surprise is the second knee. The reviewed-set cost data is blunt about bilateral incidence, and the policy treats the second cruciate as pre-existing once the first is on file. A buyer who pays the first repair (anywhere from $2,793 to $6,417 on the cited range) out of pocket because the first knee fell inside the orthopedic wait, then expects insurance to pay the second knee a year later, finds the second knee excluded on the same pre-existing basis [CareCredit: How Much Does CCL (ACL) Surgery for Dogs Cost?, 2025].
The only structural escape on a known orthopedic-risk breed (Labrador, Golden, Boxer, Bernese, Rottweiler) is to buy the policy before any limp, before the breed's typical cruciate age, and either choose Embrace and complete the orthopedic exam early or accept the standard 6-month wait at a peer carrier. Run the case through waiting periods and pre-existing conditions before assuming the policy pays.
The take
For a buyer of a cruciate-prone breed who wants the orthopedic wait shortened, Embrace's Orthopedic Exam and Waiver is the only structural concession in the reviewed set [Embrace: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026-05]. For everyone else, the working assumption should be a 6-month orthopedic wait at most carriers and a strict bilateral-condition clause once the first knee is on file. The cost ranges, the repair-type spread (suture vs TPLO), and the insurance-math worked example are on surgery. The review method is at /methodology/.