It’s probably been the quietest week so far
from a travelling perspective, although that doesn’t stop the emails coming in
thick and fast – (approximately 50 – 60 per day). Only one trip to the “big-smoke” on Thursday afternoon
for a meeting, the Equine Insurance Forum (EIF), with representatives from the
insurance industry, including KBIS, NFU, SEIB, E&L etc.. The meeting was held on the 15th
floor at Catlin Insurance, situated in the heart of The City – what a vista - and
the insurers are crying poverty: I wonder how many responses that comment will
get?
The “insurers” had already had a meeting in
the morning, which included one of their veterinary advisors, who was also
present at our meeting, Paul Farrington MRCVS, who I haven’t seen for some
time. The seating arrangements did
confer a feeling of us (David M, Huw Griffiths and me) at one end and them (including
Paul F) at the other – whose side is Paul on I ask?
There were many issues raised, including
the discussion points raised on EVG earlier in the year, which at the time came
across as quite a “full-on” insurance bashing session.
Owners tend to compare horse insurance with
their car insurance, which as the facts below indicate, is comparing apples
with oranges.
Equine Insurance Key Facts:
-
approximately 1 in 4/5 Vet Fee
policy holders makes a claim per annum, which is far higher than any other
policy type, e.g. car insurance is approximately 1 in 100….I bet I’m higher
than that.
-
The average claim is approximately
£1750
-
85 – 90% of Vet Fees is on
diagnostics
-
Car insurance doesn’t cover for
mechanical repairs, which would I suppose is equivalent to a fracture repair or
colic surgery.
With these facts in mind I think that
Equine Insurance is good value for money and that we should promote it to
owners as such.
One of the valid discussion points raised on
the forum was that the cost of insurance becomes prohibitively expensive once horse
numbers exceed 2 or 3. Inevitably in
that situation, it is always the uninsured individual, which gallops through
the fence or gets colic! A possible
solution to that scenario is for the owner to be strict about putting the
insurance premium into a savings account for that rainy day and they can spend
it on the, likely only one horse, which does have a problem. After all, insurance policies are just
another savings plan for that rainy day.
Good idea in theory but the reality is the Harrison’s (Luise) would just
spend it!
Other issues included the reason why
insurers don’t pay vets directly as BUPA or other insurers pay our medical fees
directly to the provider. It is related
to the fact that the with vet’s fees the insurers indemnify the policyholder’s
loss, i.e. costs for treatment, whereas with, for example BUPA, the insurer provides
the “medical service”. This
automatically lead into the subject of the insurers expressing their desire to
explore the option of using preferred providers, which would result in practices automatically being paid directly. This is a subject which is very topical for
TCEH at the moment; a client has very recently been paid by the insurance co. (over
£2K for a nearly £3K bill) and the money, “has been swallowed up by my bank
account”!.... I love my job.
The insurers did also ask us to remind our
members that the £5000 vet fee cover on most policies is a limit not a target.
No comments:
Post a Comment