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What Have You Noticed About Changes in Major Medical Insurance In The Last Few Years?

Hi Folks!
I’m filling out forms for major medical /mortality and its been a while. Seems like its gotten more complicated and rules are different about how much the horse has to cost to qualify for different underwriters’ major medical.

For instance, if the horse is under $7500, the only option is Hartford?
Thanks!

I haven’t seen many changes in horse insurance. I’ve had the same broker rather coincidentally with my last horse and this horse (I took over the policy from the person I got him from). He’s insured for more than $7500 but about 3 years ago, my broker switched over to the Hartford because they gave the best price for a given level of coverage. While the policy has been under my name, I haven’t had to claim anything. I didn’t claim anything with my previous horse, also, and don’t really have my finger on the pulse of major changes.

I think I remember that previously many horses had to be insured for a minimum of $5K to get insurance.

I’ve insured 2 horses through Great American/Marshall & Sterling. I’ve found the coverage to be comprehensive and the rates very reasonable. I insured my then 15yo with them in 2015. His insurance value was less than $5k but we were able to get up to $7500 in coverage.

Current horse has major medical and mortality for insurance value >$10k. Premium works out to just over $100 a month and the policy has paid for itself nearly 10 times over this year alone. I’m still waiting for my new binder for our 2022 policy year, but there didn’t appear to be any exclusions or increase in premium on the renewal paperwork despite a hefty, complex claim this spring.

I know other folks in my area have had great luck with Markel, too.

A big difference is some companies are writing policies that have a co-pay for diagnostics. It does help keep the price of a policy down so I can see why some people would go for that option but not for me. It’s not unusual for diagnostics to be the vast majority of a big vet bill so I definitely don’t want to pay 30% of that.

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I just emailed my insurance broker about that! I was looking over my (just renewed) contract and don’t remember that from last year. That plus what appears to be a $3000 limit for diagnostics per policy period, which is insane, because, as you said, diagnostics can often be the bulk of the bill.

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