The insurance search continues and I spoke with a rep from Markel insurance who was very knowledgeable. The quote I got in was very reasonable compared to some I’ve gotten in and the coverage seemed very good.
I did hear from a friend that Markel will drop you quickly if you have a claim. Anyone have experience with that?
Thanks for any feedback.
Hello! I have used Markel for the last 6 years and the first three years put in claims that basically paid for the last 6 years of yearly policy amounts. They haven’t dropped me yet (thank god), but there are disclaimers in the following year’s policy eliminating coverage of part of my horse I claimed. One thing I have noticed is each year my policy amount goes up. So I’m going to do a little shopping around for hopefully a better rate. But if not, I will stay with Markel. Good luck!
Paid Markel premiums for five years (all coverage), and for my first claim ($3500), they refused to pay and then dropped him. I had NEVER had a claim.
If if I had the time I would sue them, but they bank on this type of stuff.
Stay away :).
Horse is scheduled for Kissing Spine surgery at the end of the month. So far I’m not impressed…
ETA: they refused to pay the claim because my vet noted on a prior exam that I said he was girthy.
Clean scope, BTW. Refused to pay for the scope and everything else.
Shameful.
Well, I’ve had only good experiences with Markel. I have had a policy with them for 10 years and had 2 medical claims handled with no problems.
I do work very closely with my vet practice and they have communicated directly with the agent, which is helpful.
Exclusions for previously treated areas is pretty standard in the industry IME.
Paid premium for liability insurance on my horses before I shipped them, never got a policy, never heard anything back.
I agree about exclusions for previously treated areas, but not that a horse being girthy is a sign that he previously had colic.
he just doesn’t like to have his girth tightened.
I worked closely with my veterinarian as well, and he also submitted a letter for an appeal.
Didn’t make any difference.
my premiums were well more than the cost of that one treatment.
Still makes me so mad to think about it.
Markel was fine, but if you have a broodmare, expect them to keep jacking up the rates based on what THEY believe she is worth, not what you think you could get on the open market.
I am not a fan of Markel. I started “self insuring” after myself and my friend having to deal with them. For me, I bought a youngster and as youngsters can be frizzy and klutzy, I reported a few minor injuries and one illness (choke) but never made a claim. Without any process by which I could get a vet exam to show all the various boo-boos were no longer an issue, they excluded all said body parts. I think all that was still covered was her head and her right front leg. Their loss. She has been very healthy and sound but I have kept the premiums in MY bank account and now have a considerable savings account saved for health issues.
My my friend had a terrible time with Markel and her lame gelding. She was able to get him in a study at WSU which gave her a definitive diagnosis. Her young strapping gelding had torn the impar ligaments in both front feet. One foot was nearly 75% torn. She knew from the get go, he was not going to get better. She wanted to euthanize and they said no…she had to try x, y and z. Z being nerving. Of course, none of it helped (in fact, the nerving was very short lived then he was much worse as I would guess he farted around in no pain and completely tore the one foot) and they finally agreed with euthanasia. Conveniently, it was over a year out from the original injury and they wouldn’t pay mortality either. She really wishes she had gone with her gut and saved the horse 8 months of suffering. Not only that, the insurance company paid out far more for treatment than if they had approved the euthanasia and paid the whopping $6500 mortality policy. It doesn’t make much sense.
I prefer to have control of my horses treatment so I will pay. Price isn’t everything…keep looking.
Susan
I used Markel at one time and discovered they are very quick to refuse coverage if you virtually even ask a question about covering issues.
I have markel. Just had a colic that did not require surgery, but horse was in a clinic for care for 3 days. Bill was $3000. With all their deductions and exclusions, Markel paid $1500. I pay enough in insurance that I’m going to just self insure.
I don’t believe I ever used Markel… I might have used Hallmark years and years ago. But I now work for an insurance agency and its been eye opening to see how it all works! Insurance is a gamble no matter what, but certainly having a good company and a good agent behind you that will stand up for you helps. My horse is going on 5 years insured with current company and I have had no issues with claims reimbursement, unnecessary exclusions or changes in premium.
There are so many different plans and they are all going slightly different directions at his point… so its quite hard to compare different quotes. But look at not only premium, but sub limits, co-pays and deductibles when comparing policies. As I said, I have no reference for Markel but Im pretty happy with my agency (and not just because I work there lol!)
I agree about just self-insuring.
I think it makes sense and allows you more control over your horse’s health.
If you can put together a decent base, and then just set aside/add to the base each year the est. premium you would have paid, I imagine you could build quite a nice reserve for the “what-ifs”, such as Kyrabee was talking about.
When I first had a horse insured, it was through Markel and I was quite happy with them. My mare had colic surgery and then required further treatment for an incision infection that exhausted the entire major medical policy, and Markel was great about all of it. At the time, that was the only way I could have afforded the surgery and treatment. They did do a colic exclusion for two years after, but were willing to drop it based on my mare being colic free all that time (with vet report saying same), but I ended up changing to another provider. I did not have any of the problems with Markel that others here are describing, but this was also some 15 or more years ago, so obviously the company has changed.
Having had horse insurance for mine starting in the late 90s til a few years ago, I have seen that all of the providers have changed a great deal in how they do things. Exclusions seem to come faster and for ridiculous things (I later had another insurance company exclude my horse that had laminitis for hoof abscesses - I didn’t protest it as I figured I’d rather take a chance on an abscess - that rarely costs much to treat - over laminitis and the underlying cause). Coverage was more limited and co-pays much higher. So I moved to self insuring. I don’t regret the change, but man, a recent $4K bill for a lameness work up (with MRI) and treatment that was all mine to pay was pretty painful!
Current Markel customer and am happy with them, though I haven’t experienced a claim and subsequent changes on the same horse as the OP asked. Had a colic surgery claim last fall, plus a long hospital stay which exhausted the entire colic surgery/MM coverage. Later ended up being a mortality claim. Markel staff was easily reached and easy to deal with, and went out of their way to be sweet after my horse passed. All the paperwork was done quickly and as painlessly as possible, payments were very fast. I couldn’t have asked for a smoother process, it made an already very sad/emotional time a little easier. I insured my new horse with them as well.
That said, I generally self-insure on all minor vet workups/visits and save the insurance for any surgical scenario to avoid any complications or issues in the heat of the moment. I don’t mind paying out of pocket for the routine stuff if it means I don’t have any kind of push back or headache in a no kidding life saving surgical case.
I guess the question of whether or not to insure depends not just on your ability to save up the money, but instead if you think you’d be able to spend it in the moment. It is difficult to face the reality of spending 10,15,20,000 without an guaranteed of outcome. Having insurance makes me more willing to accept the risk knowing that I I exhaust the policy I can spend money treating complications or funding a retirement if needed.
ive never used markel but have had good experiences with great American, XL Catlin, and Praetorian. I am currently with Praetorian.
“That said, I generally self-insure on all minor vet workups/visits”
I’m curious as to how this is done. Every insurance company I’ve ever used required me to notify them of any vet visits outside of routine vaccinations.
I had a similar experience with Markel - that they pay out about 50% of a claim.
This - absolutely true. You are required to tell them. now that doesnt mean you have to claim it and take any pay out, but you do have to tell them. And that doesnt stop them from excluding whatever it is that happened, whether they pay on it or not. Which can be aggravating, and I do feel like they go a little overboard on some exclusions but the cost of diagnostics and availability of diagnostics has skyrocketed so I think we, as policy holders, have to recognize that going forward they typically arent going to cover endless costs. I still expect to pay my co-insurance or whatever portion I end up needing to on my lameness work ups etc. But these are costs, in most cases, I can choose to incur. Horse is lame - do I do some blocks and ultrasounds, rest the horse for treatment and keep it low cost, or do I take him to the pricey vet clinic, do an MRI and treat with shockwave and IRAP. You can quickly see the difference in cost that the company is going to get hit with in those two different scenarios. So when I only get $150 back on my $1000 lameness work up thats fine… but when my horse comes in from the field with a joint involved laceration and they pay out $7500 for his hospital stay, treatments and meds for that, well then I am VERY thankful for that coverage.
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