insurance - waste of money?

I don't insure any of my horses for vet fees. Over a typical year, I rarely spend more than a thousand dollars on my horses for vet fees (excl. vaccinations) ... and that's for 20 horses! No way would vet fee insurance make any savings for me. I just keep money aside in case of emergencies.
 
I insure both mine for vet fees definately worth it, my old mare wasnt covered and it cost a fortune when she got sesmoiditus took 6month treatment before she was ok, so now i make a point of having it covered, so glad a have my 4yr old gelding had for 2 years only thing had to make a claim for was he went to the hospital for an 10day stay to have treatment to remove a sarcoid, and i made sure iinsured my new mare as soon as she arrived i have had her just over a month now and im so glad she is insured as on bonfire night she injured herself was found the next morning not able to put her hoof to the floor vet says she has torn her suspensory ligament in hind leg, weve had ultra sound scan, xrays,she has to have daily sedatives as shes never been stabled and is now on box rest even sedated she still makes a point of rearing when we change the companion horse over even if one is just missing for a minute before the replacement walks in and daily pain killers, i dread to think what the total will be at the end as vet says another ultra sound in a months time to see how healing but could be looking up to 3 months box rest and a further 3 scans and possibly shockwave therapy to help it heal ,im so glad insurance covers it else i wouldnt be able to afford it at all and shes only five just backed a month ago its gutting. <font color="purple"> </font> <font color="purple"> </font>
 
Im one of the people the insurers do not make a profit from so, yes, I would always have insurance.

Over the last few years my old horse had £4k worth of treatment then died anyway. They paid out his value of £3.5k in addition to the treatment. This paid for my next horse, who then went on to have £7k worth of surgery. (yes, im really lucky with my horses!!).
I pay £60 a month insurance for 2 now and i recover it each year in vets fees. If I wasnt insured I would be in serious debt by now.
 
I have always had insurance but am unsure whether it's worth it.
My first horse was insured the whole time with nothing wrong with her and no claim.
My 2nd horse got ill a week after I bought him and was still under insurance exclusion. I am still paying the bill for the colic and laminitis treatment. He had the vet out a few months ago for minor colic, bill was the same as policy excess. He has just had colic again and I am dreading the bill. I will not be able to claim because of the previous colic occassions.
So what I am paying £45 a month for I don't know..
 
None of my animals are insured.
Just spent around £300 on my cat - but then she is nearly 15 (was a wedding present from my OH) - and that is the first time she has seen the vet since she was spayed. Insurance would have cost way more over the years, especially as she got older.
My pony is 14 and competes in endurance at the top level - the premiums would be outrageous. I have no debts and a credit card with a £5K limit. That is my insurance.
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In reality, unless you are making a regular annual or monthly payment to an insurance company, how many people will realistically not touch that 5k that acrues in their account over 5 years?! Also, you need to have at least public liability/third party cover, so maybe that will halve your insurance costs and give you 2.5k over 5 years.

If my horse gets colic tomorrow then I don't have 5 years to save up to pay for it, so I'd rather pay the £300 for the year to cover him upto £6k vet fees and all the other stuff. Then I can use another 6k next year if I need to.

Not a waste of money to me. I have seen people have their horse destroyed because they can't afford to pay for vital treatment to put the horse out of pain. I would rather see a horse PTS than left in pain, but I would also hope that if people cannot afford to shell out 5k from their own pockets for surgery, they would try to afford 300 a year to cover themselves. Of course, if you have a big lump sum in the account ready for vets' bills, then that's different.
 
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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?

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No, we were given the option of surgery by Robert Eustace, but he also could only give a 20% chance and advised against it subtly. Our vet also did. So we had her PTS for various reasons, including the fact it was not worth putting her through so much for such little chance. The insurance company paid out every penny for care and for death of horse, because the vet told them it was euthanasia in the horse's best interest. They accepted it. And hey, let's face it, they probably would rather have paid 2k for death of the mare than 5k+ for the surgery and aftercare (we would have had to stump the rest).
 
I'm put off insurance because of too many exploited loopholes for companies not to pay out, and too many exclusions. My last renewal quote was about £700 and my mare was only insured for £5000 when in reality she is worth about £10,000. Plus they excluded two of her legs and all her wind even though I had never made a claim - she had previously had an injury with a previous owner and my vet's inspection revealed a slight stiffness on the other leg when turning a tight circle, possibly due to a loose shoe! Plus she makes a little bit of a noise in exertion, so they excluded her entire wind and any related problems. I tried to reason with them but they refused to remove it, so I chose not to renew. She is only 8 and in hard work and perfect health and I had never claimed yet all these exclusions meant I did not get the peace of mind you expect insurance to get you.

I could not be bothered with haggling with another insurance company over getting these exclusions removed. I am insured third party through the BSJA anyway.

It just seems like a bad deal. If my mare did need an operation I would pay out either by getting a bank loan or cobbling the money together somehow, certainly at least to the value of the usual offered by insurance.

I dread to think how much it would cost to insure her for her full value for full vets' fees. Even with her being a mare, loss of use might not be worth insuring for, if I wanted to use her as a brood mare.
 
Another point, just moving on from Strangers points (which are good points), when you do not have vet fees included on your insurance, do bear in mind that you are very rarely charged full whack for any extensive treatment by any decent vet. When the vet is dealing directly with the paying owner, you will find the bills are generally quite a lot lower than what he would charge an insurance company.

So in essence, it isn't really the best way to look at what you get from your insurance versus what you would have to pay out, because it rarely works like that.
 
I have 7 and none are covered for vet fees .
My lad saxon has just recently had colic surgery , he was in Leahurst for 2 weeks and i was dreading the bill I thought it would be at the very least £4500 ,the first thing they asked when we arrived was " is he insured " .
My bill totalled £3400 crikey i nearly passed out with relief , yet a friends dog went to Leahurst for a week to have tests, no surgery he was insured their bill totalled £6500 , i agree by dealing direct its definately cheaper.
 
That must be true, because an earlier poster said that anything with a GA was £2K straight away. My wee mare had to have a GA a few years ago and it cost nothing like that. I can't remember how much it was - but I would remember if it was £2K! I *think* it was about £800 for all her treatment, GA included.
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