insurance - waste of money?

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Posts about rising costs made me wonder if there is anybody on here who does not insure their animals vets fees?

Say you've got 2 cats (240) a dog (160) and 2 horses (600) I reckon your annual cost to insure all of them is about 1K if you use my really rough estimate of cost above.

That means if over 5 years you make claims totalling 5K all you've lost is the interest on your 5K if you'd put it in a bank instead
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We know that insurers make a profit because we pay them more than they pay us, then they make exclusions for pre-exisiting conditions to avoid paying out. Plus you have to pay for routine treatment and there is an excess anyway and I have to pay my vet if they form fill to claim on the insurance, which costs me extra on the usual bill - so is it worth it?
 
For that occasion when the cat dog breaks a leg and requires orhtopeadic surgery at £2000 - to £4000 or when your horses needs a emergency colic surgery and after care. Yes it is worth. I've seen to many people have to make descions that break their heart all because they don't have insurance.
 
Tia never had so much as a cut in the past 14 months but insurance for vet bills is peace of mind when money is tight, I wouldn't be without it.

I think it's safer to pay the insurance company than put the money aside because I'd only end up spending it lol but that's just me.
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It would be typical that you decided not to carry on with insurance, and that horse of yours that had never had an injury or done anything that has an injury that costs £££££'s but you have no way of paying it. I would always have insurance just in case.
 
I agree with this sentiment. We have never insured for Vets Fees. We just insure for the basics so if the absolute worst happens & a horse drops dead there is some money towards the next one. We have never insured a dog or cat.

As you say the amount saved over the years would pay for a major operation. There have of course been times when I would perhaps of preferred a full lameness work out or MRI scan or similar but decided to wait because of the Vets fees but I dont have any regrets...........
 
I don't insure my cats, and the biggest bill I've ended up with is about £300.
But there's no way I wouldn't insure my horse for vets bills. I've had my horse insured with NFU for 10 years and haven't had to claim until this year, so yes, they are up, but would I honestly have put that £30/month to one side and kept it just for horse emeregencies? Probably not. Plus what if he'd needed somethig drastic just a year in when I only had £300 in hand. It's just not worth the risk, and quite frankly when my horse is ill (as he has been this last 3 weeks) the last thing I want to be worrying about is how much it's going to cost!
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I pay £11 a month for my dog to be insured and so far he's had over £6500!! Two operations, countless x-ray's, medication, a CT scan and a course of hydro therapy. In all honesty I couldn’t have afforded all that without insurance and my lovely boy would've had to be PTS.
I could’ve taken out a loan but it would cost be a lot more than £11 a month!!
 
peace of mind is everything for me. I have a cat, two dogs (soon to be 3) and two horses and yes the insurance costs are high but at least I know if something happens I don't need to be worrying about how I am going to pay for it as well as worrying about the animal. I think it always seems a lot per month, until you have a huge vet bill..then you thank heavens you had it
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That is exactly what I was thinking - everybody acts as though you must have insurance but if you put some money aside instead it should work out
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Having seen a friend struggle to pay for emergency surgery when her horse had a bladder stone (an extremely rare occurrence in horses), I would never be without insurance. It only takes a horse to colic and you could be left with a bill for thousands or have to have them put down on the spot.
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You've almost given me another argument against insurance- As an example, other treatments might be the same - If you don't want colic surgery because you think it is unfair to put the horse through it and you want to pts instead, will an insurance company still pay out , or must you allow surgery if they want you to?
 
With horses the £5000 mark comes up scarily fast and usually before you'ev got the problem solved now a days.
I think insurance companies should up the amount they pay out.
But if I add up all the money I've spent on horse insurance over the years then look at how much I've claimed, I'm still in profit.
 
I'm going to only insure my youngster from now on - in all honesty my older horse will be PTS if anything major happens as he just wouldn't cope with the trauma of horsehospital/general anasthetic. Anything minor I can pay for myself. This is where he gets a minor injury which costs a fortune....
 
But if you have saved the money you would have paid out to the insurance company then you should be able to pay for the surgery. Unlike an insurance company there would be no exclusions either
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A friends horse now has an exclusion for colic surgery because he has been treated for colic before - and it didn't even need surgery
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One only insures what one cannot afford to loose and therefore, perhaps perversely, the poorer you are the more you must spend on insurance. Most people insure their house because if it burns down they don't have the funds to replace it, if ones kettle breaks you just buy a new one! Everyone has a level where a "hit" becomes too painful. Ask yourself if in desperate circumstances could you lay your hands on the £5-7k for an expensive colic surgery (by credit card, loan or other means) if you can find the money, even if it hurts for a while, then don't insure. If you have no means to get the money or can't face impoverishing yourself as you repay the credit then insurance is a good idea.
 
I've not got either of mine insured for vets fees. The way I look at it is, if anything should happen, God forbid, I would do what I had to and then find a way of paying it when the bill came in. Most vets and horsepitals will let you pay it up if you can't pay it all in one. It would cost me nearly £1000 to insure them for vets fees and what they are worth instead of £250. No contest for me!
 
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A friends horse now has an exclusion for colic surgery because he has been treated for colic before - and it didn't even need surgery
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Gosh, she just needs a better insurance company then - I've claimed for a mild colic (no surgery, just a vet callout and a few injections, only cost just over the excess) and there's no exclusion on the policy since.

When we took the policy out they wanted to exclude both of her eyes - she is blind in her right eye from an injury as a foal, long before we had her - and we even eventually persuaded them to cover her non-blind eye.

We've got a pending claim for farriery-induced laminitis coming up, and I will make damn sure that future laminitis claims will not be exlcuded!
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Out of interest, what insurance companies are we talking about here?
 
We never used to insure for vets fees although now, as I work in horse insurance I have insured my sister's horse for vets fees as the policy is obviously discounted for me!

However, vets fees isn't really the biggest cost you could face to be honest and I think more people should be aware of liability claims to be honest so, at the very minimum you should have PL cover (whether this is coveredunder your house insurance or specialist horse cover).

The amount of incidents we do get where liability is in question or a loose/escaped horse has caused a serious accident is quite high and the reserves/settlements on these actually go into hundreds of thousands of pounds not just a few thousand.

Insurance companies who insure horses or pets actuallty do NOT make as much profit as you would think (hence one of the reasons premiumsdo get hiked up I'm afraid). They are businesses after all and really want to keep hold of the claim free risks as opposed to frequent claimers BUT the cover is there should you need it.

It's down to personal choice, as somsone said if you have other means of obtaining money (ie credit cards etc) should you need it in an emergency then maybe don't insure for vets fees or put away a small amount a month. Some people do feel they're paying out too much for insurance if they've never had to use it whereas others who maybe have had many claims are glad they had it!
 
Not sure what company it was, I'd have to ask her. The vet said it was because if a horse has colic once it is more likely to get it again, and he didn't seem surprised.

Have you renewed your policy since - if not, check it for exclusions then, that is when they add them.
 
Its a waste of time IMHO I insured my last horse with a well known big insurance company and made a claim re remedial shoeing, it was included with my insurance and in the small print that they covered for this so I claimed for it. It was a lot of money for me each month to pay out. Guess what they refused it saying he'd had abscesses before so they wouldn't pay.

Altho I now wont be insuring my horse for vets fees again. I consider it essential to have third party liability and won't hack out on the road without it.
 
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if you can find the money, even if it hurts for a while, then don't insure

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Hmm - that makes sense. What a mad world
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I would never be without insurance for mine for three reasons,

firstly for the argument of lets save and if we have a problem the monies there, but what happens if the emergency is only the second month of you putting the premiums away.

Secondly, many things can go wrong with a horse and if you had a colic surgery followed 2 months later with a tendon problem and on and on, I couldn't afford many thousands over and over.

Thirdly, I would never be prepared to have my horses lose their life because I haven't provided for them. I couldn't live with myself.
 
I lost an amazing horse to colic as he wasn't insured. If he had been insured I would have been able to say - 'Yes - operate' but because he wasn't insured and we couldn't guarantee we could find the money he had to be pts
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I still get pretty upset about it now - 6 years later
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I would ALWAYS insure my horses - even my semi retired tb who is worth nothing to anyone else. If I had a few thousand pounds sat in a bank account doing nothing then it would be different, but I don't.
 
Definitely worth it unless you have £5k ready cash in the bank now (and the ability to get hold of more if needed). Anything that requires general anaesthetic is straight up to the £2k mark.

I currently have two open insurance claims - one will definitely run to four figures - both for relatively minor problems.
 
dog not insured, horse definatly is, not worth the risk not insuring them. Vets fees arent for very much, but I didnt pay a lot for him.
 
i wouldn't be without insurance. within a few months of having my horse, she had an accident and was in horspital. 2.5k for that. my dog had double cruciate surgery last year and that was 4,6k. i would hate to have the worry of my animal being ill and the worry of coming up with that sort of money in one go.
 
Hand on heart I thought I would be one of those people that never had to make a claim.Ive had my boy 3 years this month and by the end of the month will have had to claim in the region of £9000 possibly more depending on treatment we choose.If he doesnt come sound after 6 months then I will have to give him away or something far worse .I have the luxury of knowing that I have done everything possible to give him a good quality of life.
In my opinion Yes it is worth it .
 
Depends on your circumstances.

I have one insured and one not - both are insured for liability tho.

One had a very large vets bill which involved months of box rest etc. and was told he would get worse and have to be put down, so didn't see the point in renewing.

He is actually back in work at the moment, but I think if anything serious happened to him now, I wouldn't have the heart to put him through all the treatment and box rest again - he has been through enough.

The other one is fully insured as I would def. want her to be treated.
 
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