Catastrophe insurance

criso

criso

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I'm considering this and wanted to get some thoughts.

Renewal time and getting quotes which are really high and this is now an option offered by the likes of KBIS and Shearwater. It's coming in at about half saving me at least £300 a year.

Taking an example Cover is for Accidental External and Violent Injuries only, Colic Surgery, Joint or Tendon Flushing as a result of Sepsis or Surgery for pastern and Pedal Bone Fractures.

It also includes death and theft and optional tack cover.

With a previous claim for KS plus a couple of other things, I'm thinking that a lot would be excluded - anything in the hind legs would be linked to the back. However as a sensitive sort even small wounds end up costing more than they should so not ready to go completely insurance free.

Trying to think where I would lose out Something like Ulcers would be something not covered, we've already had high liver enzymes so that's excluded, no expensive diagnostics such as MRI or bone scans. I'm thinking a lot of soft tissue injuries, tendons and ligament, are mainly rest and careful rehab though I would have to budget for a ultrasound or possibly xray. Possibly needing to medicate a joint. However as I said given previous issues, an insurer would try an relate these back to previous issues and the savings would give me money to put towards these.

Any thoughts would be welcome.
 
I wouldn't use kbis if my own life depended on it, i had been with them for 15 years and called them to double check if ulcers were covered in my cover! Two months later the renewal came through excluding ulcers! I had only asked ffs, i was raging, its not like i was claiming or had done .
 
Thanks. Shearwater are giving a better quote anyway and I've had good experiences with them with a loan horse and my horsebox so if I go down this route they're currently the favourite.
 
It got to the stage where mine had four exclusions and I said 'no thank you very much'. To which I was told 'it might be possible to take a couple off'. But not colic. Nor hocks. Nor neck. Not much left then???! :)

Put the money aside in an account, or better still your horses vet account if you pay your vets bill by internet banking. Its so easy to do this that way. I've had on the odd occasion a couple of hundred pounds which has come in useful I can tell you!
 
Rather than try and guess the ever more creative way they can harm themselves, is a much higher excess an option to reduce the premiums? If you have say £600-800 excess then it would be anything catastrophic covered and all the small niggles not?
 
Polos Mum said:
Rather than try and guess the ever more creative way they can harm themselves, is a much higher excess an option to reduce the premiums? If you have say £600-800 excess then it would be anything catastrophic covered and all the small niggles not?
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Good thinking but a hell of a gamble nevertheless. Knowing how fate works you can bet your bottom dollar that when you have a huge excess to reduce your premium something will happen that you never imagined! Its a running joke with me and my vets that when I have paid off a vets bill (before I have started again adding) I tell them 'don't let ***** know'. LOL
 
hopscotch bandit said:
It got to the stage where mine had four exclusions and I said 'no thank you very much'. To which I was told 'it might be possible to take a couple off'. But not colic. Nor hocks. Nor neck. Not much left then???! :)

Put the money aside in an account, or better still your horses vet account if you pay your vets bill by internet banking. Its so easy to do this that way. I've had on the odd occasion a couple of hundred pounds which has come in useful I can tell you!
Click to expand...

I definitely don't want to go down the money aside into an account route. As I said Tigger has the ability to turn a small cut into a major issue so I would be thousands out of pocket. And don't ask me why it's always at a weekend or bank holiday.

I think that approach works better with multiple horses so the insurance you save on say 4 horses will pay for the one who has the accident in a given year.

I'm thinking of the pros and cons of catastrophe insurance versus full sickness cover.
 
Changing the excess to £500 doesn't bring it down so much.
If it was a horse with no history, it might be different but as I will have exclusions and knowing that they may try to tie in any new condition to an old one, in this case I'm considering it.
 
We had insurance for over 10 years with Pet Plan for our 2. One had two very expensive claims in the early days so having insurance was invaluable at that time. However, we realised a couple of years ago that £1200 per horse per year was over time pretty steep (yes, I'm being polite!!) especially when hubby's horse has so many exclusions there's not much left to claim for! It tipped the balance when I had a small claim for mine - after 10 years of having absolutely nothing - and the hoops I had to jump through to get the money was just ridiculous.

Now we have KBIS Catastrophe cover (we have money put by to 'cover' vet bills and at least this way we decide what we spend it on!!). This year mine has had a bout of laminitis which so far has been pretty expensive and we're not done yet. Yes, it would have been covered but not at renewal, one can guarantee, so if it does reoccur and need vet attention, at least the decision to pay is in our hands. The way I see it is sod's law means this will reoccur and we'd have to pay vet bill as well as insurance.

Good luck deciding x
 
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