Is it worth insuring against vet bills?

[anguscat]

I wondered about this and decided to throw caution to the wind and not insure. I've kept my figures for a year now and give them below.
I have six horses. One has a chronic joint problem (cartrophen and bute); one comes up now and then with an allergic rash requiring steroids (sometimes injections) and one very sadly had laminitis (xrays, bute,sedalin,metformin etc etc) and after 6 months had to be pts.
My total vet spend over the year was £3745 but of that £1080 was spent on routine work: vaccinations, worming, teeth. So £2665 on the non-routine work.
I reckon my insurance was costing about £400/horse: lets say £2400 for the lot but that was with about a £250 XS per horse. So even with insurance I'd have had to fork out £750 for the three non-routine incidents.
So this year I have more than broken even,despite health problems in my little group. In the long run I think it will be cheaper for me not to insure. That's afterall how insurers make their money. To insure or not insure depends on if you're in the financial situation to be able to deal with a big bill for the disasters which will inevitably happen now and then. You will get those bad times but you'll also get the happy times with big mishaps.
Basically if without insurance you couldn't afford to do the right thing by your horse (but that doesn't necessarily mean keeping the horse alive come hell or high water) then you must insure.

 

[BBH]

My little Sec A pony is insured as are my two dogs.

For the sake of £18 a month I know that if anything goes wrong he will be treated. £18 is nothing and IMV its the least I can do for him.

 

[Bedlam]

Insurance companies are basically bookmakers. They calculate the risk of the population of horses that they insure all having large claims and set the premiums to make sure that they make a profit. This is how they stay in business, and for a large enough population of horses the insurance company will ALWAYS win.

When it comes down to individual risk, however, it's a much more dodgy bet. I had 3 claims on my last horse over 2 years. One was for the full 5K for kissing spines, and then she ran up claims of around 2.5K each for weird azoturia like symptoms, and then a forelimb lameness that just didn't seem to be caused by anything other than corns after all the investigations were over.

So, I think what I'm saying is that for the owner with 1 or 2 horses insurance is a must have. If you have large numbers, however, thereby reducing the individual risk, then the insurance company is more likely to make money out of you than you are out of them.

Hope that makes sense......?!?

 

[Stacey02]

definatly - vet bills can be huge and I agree unless you have deep pockets dont take the risk.

my horse had a kick to the hock, ended up being chiped bone - total bill just shy of £1000

dont risk it

 

[abb123]

I have two horses, one fully insured and one not at the moment. Both were insured but then one got colic and associated laminitus. I got the renewal quote and it had so many exclusions and huge excess that I didn't think it was worth it. I now just have the PL for her.

 

[Lakelandcross]

I was clearing out some old paperwork a couple of months and calculated that we had paid nearly £16,000 in premiums over the last 20 odd years and never made a claim.

 

[dixie]

I always insure for vets fees & once I insured for LOU and had to use it too, sadly.

Horse 1 - never made a vets fee claim as he was remarkably sound etc but claimed for death as he had to be PTS due to broken leg. Insured for 7 yrs, no claims until year 7 and I think I got 80% of his value.

Horse 2 - Have claimed 4 times - 1) £1500 for foot abscess 2) £5000 for sacroilliac issue 3) £5000 for foot soundness issues 4) £800 for foot abscess. Have owned and insured him for 10 yrs but definitely got my monies worth. Premiums are still relatively low but I have a £500 excess.

Horse 3 - Bought December and by February was written off with kissing spine. So paid a couple of premiums at about £80 each and got back 80% of her value.

I think I'm winning so far !! So you can seen why I would never not insure for vets fee.