ASPCA Horse Insurance - Colic, Accident, Illness

[scrbear11]

Does anyone have an ASPCA Horse Insurance policy, or has anyone used it? This policy just offers a sort of major medical/colic coverage. No mortality and you don’t seem to need to justify value.

I’m hoping someone here can tell me if they have had a difficult time filling a claim. It seems like a good option for the otherwise uninsurable horse.

[wsmoak]

I have not. The bottom of the page says “Pre-existing conditions are not covered,” “Subject to underwriting,” and:

The ASPCA® is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Products are underwritten by the United States Fire Insurance Company, produced and administered by C&F Insurance Agency, Inc. (NPN #3974227), a Crum & Forster company. Through a licensing agreement, the ASPCA receives a royalty fee that is in exchange for use of the ASPCA’s marks and is not a charitable contribution. C&F and Crum & Forster are registered trademarks of United States Fire Insurance Company. Crum & Forster Pet Insurance GroupTM is a trademark of United States Fire Insurance Company. The Crum & Forster group of companies is rated A (Excellent) by AM Best Company 2018.

Were you able to get a quote? It’s not available in my state so I couldn’t get very far. If they’re writing policies for ‘otherwise uninsurable’ horses the premium is surely going to reflect that…

[Lysendriel]

I have it. I am a small animal vet tech and heard about it when they were first trialing it with horses, as it is modeled after dog/cat insurance. (Hence no mortality, no value claims, etc).

So, I had a very unique situation. My horse was diagnosed with severe laryngeal paralysis (or “roars” with grade IV/IV on one side and I/IV on the other). She was barely able to trot under saddle. ASPCA classifies any tie-back surgery as “cosmetic”. Non of the veterinarians I spoke to felt that surgery for her was in any way cosmetic. She couldn’t breathe. She was technically pasture sound, as long as all she wanted to do was stand or walk.

I quickly found out that ASPCA has no customer service. There wasn’t any way to discuss this issue with them. No way to have a vet submit anything saying that it was not a cosmetic procedure. Now, I understand the exclusion is in black-and-white when you sign up. I actually had no problem with this at all and immediately paid out of pocket for the surgery. What disgusted me was the lack of ability to even talk to a representative. When I called, none of the people even knew ASPCA insured horses. They couldn’t see my policy. They claimed they ASPCA didn’t have “managers” and there was “no one else to talk to”. It was so bizarre and clearly BS.

I originally called just to query just to see if there was any sort of veterinary review/way to have them deem the procedure not-cosmetic, but was already committed 100% to paying for the surgery out-of-pocket. But as I had been paying for insurance for years, I figured it was at least worth a phone call to make sure they didn’t have some way for my veterinarian to submit some sort of exception. What I quickly found was that their “customer service” was beyond garbage, didn’t know they insured horses, wasn’t able to find anyone else who was knowledgeable, made promises to call me back without ever doing so, etc, etc.

In the end, the surgery was clearly an exception in the policy and I’m not upset that it wasn’t covered. In fact, I knew immediately going in to it, that it was likely not covered. I did feel it was worth at least reaching out and that process turned out to be complete garbage. So while I don’t fault them for not covering something that was excluded, I do fault them for arguably the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced.

In the end, I still have coverage with them, because I’ve never done any sort of “traditional” horse insurance and the whole process seems really complicated and intimidating. I have submitted claims since the surgery for minor issues (upper respiratory infection, etc), but I’ve never reached my deductible, and those claims are all submitted through the app.

I do know that one other person at my barn had ASPCA insurance and had a great experience with being reimbursed, but again, she was able to do everything through the app. She had never tried to call for customer service.

So, in the end, I don’t really have a good answer when people ask me if I recommend it. From a customer service standpoint, it was (looking back, hilariously) bad. How an insurance company can have reps that don’t even know that horses are covered, or how the reps claimed they didn’t even have managers to escalate to, is just laughably stupid. But, their policy excludes tie-backs (even if the veterinarians didn’t believe it was “cosmetic”) and I knew that when signing up. So all in all it is kind of a mixed bag.

[cnd8]

My friend at the barn has this coverage on her eventing mare. I do know they had some eye ulcer issues and though it took several months for the company to pay the claims, it finally did. The claim was made in August and they received their $3000 compensation in December. I had never heard of ASPCA having coverage, personally.