Hi folks,
I am in OC,California, and looking to buy medical/surgical and, liability insurance for my 3-year-old mare. Any suggestion to start getting a quote from? Have you had any processing, payment, or reimbursement complications with any insurance?
Thank you!
I use Great American/Marshall & Sterling. They’ve been excellent. I’ve also heard good things about Markel.
It does depend on what your intended use/discipline is, though. Many eventers are struggling to find coverage right now.
I use Broadstone, and I’ve had it underwritten by both the Hartford and American Reliable. Good experiences on both, with both reasonable rates and very smooth experiences for claims.
I insured an import thru GAIG; LONG story but horse arrived not healthy, went from quarantine to vet hospital and euthanized about 5 weeks later. They were absolutely super to work with.
I use Berkley and they’ve been great, so far!
I use Markel/Great American and the customer service has been excellent.
Be very aware of your coverage though: I have very recently been working through an extensive claim on my seriously injured mare. I have a higher deductible and a higher limit policy. However, there are a lot of limitations that I didn’t quite think about when I purchased the policy. Example: I have a $3,000 diagnostics limit that I blew through almost immediately–xrays, ultrasound and bloodwork ate half of that instantly and therefore only $1500 was left to put towards the MRI she needed, which was over $3k itself. This also means that any follow-up xrays, ultrasounds etc. are not covered.
I also have a $2,000 limit on regenerative therapies which will not even cover the cost of the Renovo my vet is recommending.
I am not knocking the insurance at all–as I said they’ve been great to work with–but the coverage may not go as far as you think. Just FYI.
https://www.laurelfowlerins.com/home-page
I’ve been really pleased with Laurel Fowler, a broker in CA who works with many companies. She has been great about matching me with the right company and policy for my needs.
Thats sad ! but thanks for the hint!
I think that my dealings w/ them might have been helped by the fact that he was at a known vet hospital (Univ of Fla) and the doctors/staff there had good working relationships with the insurance co people. I didn’t really have to get involved with anything.
It was a very sad situation, as well as one filled with anger because I was lied to about a number of things by the person in Spain before he shipped. He was not right then; they knew, denied, etc. I briefly hired a lawyer but given the whole international thing, way to hard to take action.
For those of you that have it, do you think it’s worth it? Cost of policy vs cost of care? If you had to file a claim, did the insurance make you wait for a period of time after that to cover that body part again?
I only insure mortality b/c of the reasons LuvMyTB mentioned. With medical, I ended up with a leg excluded. So I was paying full rate for 3 legs…and limits on everything.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll keep mortality next year. My rate went up & I’m not even sure why. I think the insurance industry as a whole has been taking a hit & as a result, there’s a lot of fine print.
I more or less agree with @keh. I will end up having a leg excluded when the policy is up for renewal this summer. Not sure if I will renew medical, or just do mortality, or nothing at all.
It’s not that I haven’t been grateful to have it for this injury–they’ve paid out around $5,000 on this claim BUT, between the cost of the policy, the deductible, the copays, and everything that hasn’t been covered…I’m probably close to that out-of-pocket too.
My horse is 4 months into a 12-month rehab and I am maxed out on what they’ll cover for this injury. Diagnostics, shockwave, and regenerative therapy limits have all been met/exceeded. It may serve me better to NOT pay the $2,000 policy and keep that money instead for the continued ultrasounds etc. that she’s going to need for the rest of this year.
Tough call. I can’t afford to replace this horse at all, so that tempts me to keep the mortality. We’ll see.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
