Horse insurance...holy smokes they jacked up the price!!

[runNjump86]

I insured Bailey for his move to CA then let the policy expire the following year. My vet has been on my butt about getting Sky insured and after a friend recently lost a horse, I called up the agent she recommended. When I had Bailey insured his mortality and major medical was $465/year. Very reasonable.

However.

They have made some very recent changes (2 months or under) to how they do horse insurance, and I’m hoping it’s just this particular company, because all of a sudden mortality and major medical nearly DOUBLED. $750/year. I wasn’t even going to insure Sky for his full value since I am mostly concerned with diagnostics and medical issues, but HOLY CRAP. Had I insured him for his full value I would have been looking at a $900+ quote. I realize that in the grand scheme of things diagnostics would be more than that very easily and very quickly. I also realize that many people say not to get insurance and just put money into a savings account, but when you’re not making that much money in the first place it’s hard to build up enough of a cushion that I won’t be frantic if he severely hurts himself or has a mysterious lameness.

Anyone else had this problem? I emailed an agent from a different company and am waiting on a quote from them before I have a full-on heart attack.

[Duramax]

My commercial equine liability policy doubled this year.

[Winding_Down]

almost doubled over the past two years… yep…

but it has been worth it

[quietann]

I dropped my mare’s insurance this year. The premium price went up by 25% and there were a lot of new requirements including vet certification which there is NO way she would pass. Luckily I have savings should anything go seriously wrong. She was, at one time, a very low 5-figures horse; these days she’s more likely to be a low 4 figures one as she requires a lot of maintenance to stay sound.

There have been a lot of threads about changes in the horse insurance business, specifically more people with “low value” (under $10K) horses wanting to buy major medical coverage, which used to be the province of more expensive horses. So the insurance companies are understandably not too thrilled when a $1000 horse has a $3500 surgery, for example.

I did insure my baby horse, paying a bit extra for a rider allowing $10K of major medical coverage even though I paid low to mid 4 figures for her. The agent tells me that the price will drop next year, because yearlings are much less likely to have expensive claims than foals are.

[runNjump86]

Ugh. I can understand it but it still sucks. I just priced out Markel through their website (brilliant BTW) and it was $120 cheaper, but I don’t know if it covers diagnostics.

DH is NOT gonna be happy. I told him it shouldn’t be more than $500. Uhoh.

[FrittSkritt]

I ended up dropping my longtime broker because my rates skyrocketed… horse is insured for under $10k but his yearly went up almost $200 and the deductible also jumped $100. I have Hallmark now – forgot who the underwriter is but they seem OK so far.

[runNjump86]

Yeah I’m mostly worried about diagnostics/medical, but they force you to have a certain % of the horse’s value insured for mortality. Makes sense…but DAMN.

[GoForAGallop]

I have my mare insured for $1000 (though she’s currently valued at about $10k) mortality just to get the $10k major medical/surgical with The Hartford through Broadstone Equine.

They just happily cut me a check for over $2k after a wild goose chase of diagnostics at the vet hospital that totaled over $4k. Now, The Hartford is a little bit more restricted in terms of what they cover, but I was more than happy to see that check in the mail. The uncovered items were 50% of the full body bone scan, and about $1000 worth of injections. (Which no company will cover, so that’s fine.)

My total premium is $350/year. Worth it, in my case. She would have gotten the diagnostics and treatment one way or another, but it was easy to keep giving approval for 10 more xray shots (ended up doing over 40) or for the $2k bone scan when I knew that I was going to be getting a fat check.

As a bonus, my agent was fantastic to work with, talked me through what was covered in “real time” before I gave the go-ahead at the hospital, and the check was in my hands two days after they got the paperwork.

I truly don’t care about replacement value, as I have a feeling she might be my last owned horse. (Well, her and the two lazy retirees at home!) So while it would be nice–if she impales herself on a fence post or dies in some other spectacular manner–to get a check for her value, I instead choose to save on my premiums by keeping her “value” at only $1000.

[Mukluk]

I had mine insured and it was worth it when she had to go to the horsey hospital for a few thousand but at close to $900 yearly rate and $250 deductible it only really helps for vet bills in the $1000s. Not that those don’t exist but I am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. If she has a big vet bill I’ll just have to suck it up.

[TheJenners]

It was greater than $1800 for DH’s good mare last year :dead:. But she’s insured at $50k with loss of use. :dead: :dead: :dead:

[eventerpony]

[QUOTE=runNjump86;7666638]
Ugh. I can understand it but it still sucks. I just priced out Markel through their website (brilliant BTW) and it was $120 cheaper, but I don’t know if it covers diagnostics.

DH is NOT gonna be happy. I told him it shouldn’t be more than $500. Uhoh.[/QUOTE]

I have Markel - they cover 70% of the diagnostic cost.

[KingoftheRoad]

Absolutely check out Broadstone - they work with a couple of different underwriters, and were able to find me some very good MM for my guy that still covers diagnostics with a $250 deductible. The only exclusion was IRAP. I had to switch a few years ago after Great America started paying only 50% on diagnostics…

[Winding_Down]

I just switched brokers and am now with Broadstone. I also switched to XL which seemed like the best coverage for the cost. That being said, I insured two horses, ages 4 and 5 with no pre-existings and the total is almost $2k. That is a bite.

But I’ve learned from experience that the insurance is worth it. I am not willing to risk having a 10 or 20k $$ bill to cover out of pocket.

[kcmel]

I have XL via Broadstone too for my new horse. Haven’t had to use it yet (knock on wood). They do have a minimum insured value of $7500. You can still insure if your horse is worth less, but you have to pay the $7500 rate. Even though the purchase price on my guy was less than the minimum, it still looked like the best value in terms of what Broadstone offered.

ETA it was $522 for the year.

[VirginiaBred]

Be aware that AIG has made huge changes…

American International Group (AIG) has announced that it will discontinued writing new business for (both) the Equine Mortality Program and their Farm and Ranch Program as June 1, 2014.

(I do marketing for Jennifer Oliver; Equine Insurance Specialists - https://www.facebook.com/JenniferOliverEquineInsuranceSpecialist and she has had a number of calls about this.)

[Frivian]

I have Markel and had my horse insured for the minimum ($2500) just to get the medical. They just changed their policy to only offer major medical for horses insured for $5000 and above. I was all ready to submit the vet report and training/competition record to increase his value to keep getting the medical.

Well, then he got cellulitis right at renewal time so they denied him an increase in value! We have to wait 6 more months to try again. Ugh.

[quietann]

[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;7666966]
Be aware that AIG has made huge changes…

American International Group (AIG) has announced that it will discontinued writing new business for (both) the Equine Mortality Program and their Farm and Ranch Program as June 1, 2014.

(I do marketing for Jennifer Oliver; Equine Insurance Specialists - https://www.facebook.com/JenniferOliverEquineInsuranceSpecialist and she has had a number of calls about this.)[/QUOTE]

Well my mare was insured with AIG so I guess it’s just as well I dropped her policy. My guess is, with the required vet certification, there were just not that many insurable horses by AIG’s standards, or a lot who had so many exceptions that the owners just dropped the coverage.

Jennifer handled getting my filly insured, and she is awesome!

[MorganJumper848]

I use Markel but I will be looking to switch for the next year. My horse is no longer eventing so my premium dropped about $60/year from just that but they are very picky about what they will cover. For example, my horse had a small mass removed at a hospital because it was oozing and bleeding and we didn’t know what it was. Markel doesn’t cover it because it wasn’t deemed harmful before the surgery. There was no other way to find out what is was though without completely removing it. He was also diagnosed with allergies and has been on allergy shots. He never had breathing issues before or after the shots but now they won’t cover him for anything related to breathing… Make sure your vet is very vague when writing the cellulitis report. It can make all of the difference.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

I don’t have my horses insured…I have too many and have been burned a few to many times. What I do have is a CareCredit account. This lets me know I can do the emergency treatment and then pay it off over time. I’m then not fighting with the insurance company.

[BBowen]

I left Markel a few years ago. Each little issue created an exclusion on their policy, but the kicker for me was the less than stellar customer service by my rep. Each time I would call with a question or clarification, she was rude and almost accusatory in her comments. I wasn’t trying to get away with anything, I just wanted to be sure I was following the guidelines of my policy. Sheesh!!! But, overall, equine insurance has soared.