I am a riding instructor with no employees. I am Not required to have worker comp under GA law as the sole employee/owner. However, I found this statement in my health insurance under exclusions. There is no coverage " as a result of any injury sustained during or due to participating or instructing in any of the following: operating or riding on a motorcycle; professional or Semi-professional sports; horseback riding (if the member is paid to participate or to instruct). " I looked into a worker comp policy for just me and the quote was $14,000 per year. Does anyone have coverage for injuries to themselves while working? (I have liability coverage that covers clients). I looked into Accident & Disability Insurance. Some of them will cover on the job but they often exclude sports injuries. I looked into something called Occupational Accident Insurance but it seems those policies are only designed for truckers. Has anyone ever been injured and been denied treatment by the health insurance due to the exclusion of training and teaching?
I’ve been injured while teaching and handling horses, and had no trouble with health insurance, but it was long ago. I think USEF had some supplemental insurance that might help…
You should call an equine insurance company and get a quote. Trying to guess what kind of insurance and how much is inefficient and might end up with you spending more than you need or being under insured. I’m sure there are other places, but something like this:
https://www.markelinsurance.com/ridi…-horse-trainer
You can get a quote online but it would be useful to call and speak to an agent so you can understand what different types of insurance exist and which is most useful for you.
Concur with these thoughts. Buy only what you need but get what you need from someone who understands your needs. Equine commercial brokers are a good place to start. So would be the larger organizations like USEF. This may, or may not, be a long journey. Good luck as you go forward.
G.
Interesting wording on the exclusion for the health insurance. I pay medical claims for a living. I have never seen an exclusion worded quite like that. The normal wording I see is that it is excluded if it is payable under a Workers Comp policy.
Some are excluded if payable under a WC policy or would be payable if required to have WC coverage. This is to make sure it is paid under WC if they have it but also an acknowledgement that for certain situations not all states require WC for all jobs. But if the state requires it and they choose to not have it the health plan doesn’t need to pick up the slack because they failed to follow the law.
Then separately there may be what we call “Hazardous Hobby” exclusion. If you are injured doing: hang gliding, mountain climbing with ropes/guides, racing (could be horse, motorcycle, auto), zip lining, snowmobiling, jet skiing, parachuting, cliff diving, participating in professional sports,tackle football. Some policies you could pay an additional premium to cover these activities and some you couldn’t.
The only occupational accident policies we have all all for trucker that are owner/operator, couriers and independent delivery drivers. Most of those policies are through a large trucking company or a trade organization.
Depending on where you are obtaining your health insurance you might want to look around at renewal time to see if a different policy might have an exclusion that will work better for you so you don’t need a separate occupation accident/WC type policy.
Be aware that many of the occupational accident type polices have fairly low limits and a shortish benefit period. WC generally does not have that issue. Most of the occupational accident type policies I have seen have a 2 year benefit period and a $250,000 or $500,000 lifetime maximum. That dollar limit is a drop in the bucket for many injuries. (Head and spine in particular). For the benefit period I have seen plenty of cases where after multiple surgeries and PT and injections they still need additional treatment but have gone 2 years and now there is no more coverage even if they have not hit the policy dollar limit.
I rarely tell the doctor how I got hurt…because the insurance company will go after the gym, the farm whatever. I pay for the insurance so it can damn well cover me regardless of how I got hurt.
I was holding the horseshoe in my hand looking closely at it when the car’s airbag went off…that is why there a horseshoe imprint on my forehead
exactly! LOL and I have yet to have a horseshoe imprint on me…they usually buck me off or run me over…LOL
Yeah…but when an ambulance is called to take you from the arena to the ER…going to be hard to get out of that one. Better to just have good insurance.
There are a lot more things that happen to us that don’t require an ambulance. I have never left the farm in an ambulance but I have broken bones over the 25 years I have had a farm.
My friend pulled some muscles at a crossfit class he was going too…he was getting letters from his health ins. wanting to know the name of the gym etc. He finally stopped saying where he was “injured” because it was his choice to take the class and he didn’t want to cause problems for the little guy he worked out at.
drags out soapbox
Remind me again why we pay a lot of money for health insurance that regularly denies claims, treatments and apparently feels it is doing us a favor by taking more of our money and giving us less service than I could receive in any other relatively wealthy country? It is ridiculous that a riding instructor in the UK who gets injured doesn’t have to worry about any of this. A visitor to the UK on a riding holiday who suffers an injury doesn’t worry about getting an outrageous bill, if they get a bill at all.
returns soapbox
I have used Markel in the past and they were lovely. Fingers crossed they can help you get an affordable policy that won’t leave you in a lurch if you ever have need of it.
Well, yeah…but in other professions, worker’s comp covers the tab if someone gets hurt at work. So, if you’re employed in a job that is known/likely to put a person more at risk for injuries, I can understand why the insurance company wants additional insurance. It’s different if you are just riding your own horse and get hurt. When you’re being paid to ride other people’s horses, a commercial insurance should be involved.
When we hire consultants at my office - anyone making more than $25K has to have a commercial liability policy, even if they are just sitting in their home writing a report.
This is called “subrogation.” Happens all the time in insurance. If you have a car accident, your insurance pays then goes after the other party’s insurance to recover their loss.
drag that box back out as the answer you posted is sort of correct
[h=2]Emergency treatment is free[/h]
If you have an accident or need emergency medical treatment, you will receive that treatment free of charge, regardless of your nationality or place of residence as long as that emergency treatment is delivered at:
- a primary care facility or General Practitioner's office, known as a GP's Surgery
- a hospital emergency room, called Accident and Emergency (A&E) or Casualty in UK hospitals
- A walk-in center providing services similar to an emergency room.
there is more
https://www.tripsavvy.com/visitors-using-free-uk-medical-services-1662372
Still sounds like a relative bargain as I do have employer-provided health insurance (for which I still pay a packet towards my premium and then the co-pays, etc.) and it would follow me if I were injured overseas. 1000 pounds is $1222 dollars, more or less. That is what payment plans are all about. Even if my insurer were to balk because that is the first thing they do. Deny claims.
Goodness knows I paid a lot more not so very long ago (not a riding accident). The joys of arguing with insurance companies while recovering can’t be overstated. It took me two years to finish paying off the bills. With very good insurance, mind you.
But I digress. I have used Markel in the past and they were very good then. May they still be now!
Still drives me crazy that as one of the richest countries in the world, there are people who are uninsured or underinsured. Meanwhile, yes, an additional policy is needed. Something else to factor into your fees, OP.
And that $25,000 is where the rubber meets the road. I would imagine that many riding instructors/trainers after expenses make that much…and certainly wouldn’t if they had to pay $14,000 in WC insurance.
AFLAC?
Getting hurt is not fun. You have insurance to cushion that “blow.” Don’t “blow” it by not following your contract.
G.
Well, that’s just our location. Many other campuses impose that requirement on any consultant making over $10,000 and some for anyone making over $600. They are boilerplate contracts.
At minimum, they require Commercial General Liability, which if I recall, only costs about $400/year for a consultant to obtain $1M in coverage. Not really a lot of money, especially for an occupation that is far more likely to result in injury than an educational consultant.
