Insurance have you all ways

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oldywoldy

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Out of interest we have just lost a horse to colic it is a clients horse has had a claim for gassy colic 15 months ago which was treated medically so is an exclusion on the policy so we knew we would be paying all the vets bills. What we did not realise was that we would not get a bean for the value of the horse as she was not covered for mortality or vets fees any longer so we have lost a horse of some considerable value and have a large vets bill too. I may have been being stupid but it never occurred to me that we would not get back the amount the horse was insured for. Needless to say we are going to the ombudsman and I will now not bother to continue to insure any horse with an exclusion in the future.
 
The insurance company haven't 'got' you (or the client). If an exclusion is in place then this is for every cover under the policy, be it vets fees, loss of use or death. Standard procedure. The point of insurance is not to cover for the inevitable and hence why an exclusion would have been put on, as it would have been considered the horse posed a risk of having colic again (which it did).
Sorry that this person lost their horse. It's never nice but unfortunately i don't think you are likely to get anywhere with the ombudsman on this occasion. Of course, had the horse died/been PTS within 12 mths of the initial occurrence then it would have still been covered (in general).
 
I wouldn't have expected it any other way unfortunately.
When you have a big exclusion you then have to weigh up the risks yourself and whether you want to continue insurance.

It could have gone the other way - you might have had a broken leg and full vet and mortality payout.

I'm sorry about the horse :(
 
To be honest I didn't realise this either. I assumed the exclusion was just the vets fees element, didn't realise they wouldn't pay out mortality if it died from that exclusion (although it makes sense, just hadn't twigged)
 
little_critter said:
To be honest I didn't realise this either. I assumed the exclusion was just the vets fees element, didn't realise they wouldn't pay out mortality if it died from that exclusion (although it makes sense, just hadn't twigged)
Click to expand...

While I realised they would not pay if the horse died from an excluded ailment, what I would not expect is an exclusion based on one simple colic that did not require any more than meds to treat.
 
Ah Ladyt25, was going to say the same thing

Be Positive - that suprised me too. I think the company I worked for would only exclude it if it had surgery and that exclusion would generally only apply for 12-24 months and could be removed if the horse was colic free for that period of time. If the surgery cost more than £5k they would permanently exclude.

The company I work for now generally only excludes if it had to have a resection.
 
Glad I am not the only one - we live and learn. Think I shall go back to doing what I meant to do years ago and put some money aside every month for emergencies.all the horses left insured will not be renewed if they have any problem in the future and the insurance company can go without a lot of business.
 
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