Insurance renewal £250 a month! Help me decide...

[milesmachine]

Hey all

I'm wondering what owners of older dogs do when premiums start to go through the roof?

Our lovely lab is 9 and has had both back legs operated on for cruciate ligament as well as a fatty lump and arthritis. It's safe to say we have got our monies worth so far out of our insurers! But the new quote (lifetime cover so 'illnesses' continue to be insured) is £250 a month. And we are now on copay where we have to pay 20% of all bills.

I'm wondering what to do now and whether it's worth keeping going with insurance. He currently has librella injections monthly for his arthritis but is otherwise well. I know treatment for his creakiness will creep up though!

The way I see it we have 3 choices:

1. Bin the insurance and put money asside each month to the amount of old premiums and pay for librella etc out of pocket
2. Reinsure him with a new insurer knowing arthritis and his back legs won't be insured (assume amount would be less) and pay for librella injections
3. Continue with the high premiums in case something else happens to his legs!

£250 is a lot but we could stretch to it. But I'm not sure what else could happen to his back legs so wondering if going with a new provider might be worth it?

Would love to hear what others have done?

Thanks!

We have just gone a to a new insurer at a lower price for accident cover / new illnesses and accepted that the medicine we need for his ongoing issue will be paid out of pocket. It’s cheaper to buy those meds than pay the higher insurance premium.

We had this with our cats. After vets bulls of nearly £700 one year due to a couple of illnesses and a wound from a fight, they put our bill up to £80 a month (from £30). It felt like a really cynical effort to claw back the month they’d had to pay out. We cancelled the insurance.

Pay for the ongoing medicine yourself and either move to a cheaper insurer or put money aside. With the greatest will in the world you are moving into the age where a lot of things will be better left untreated due to risks of general anasthetic/quality of life etc so its more going to be pain meds etc you are paying out for rather than rediculously expensive operations.

We pay over £250 a month for our 12.5 yr old cocker spaniel, he’s recently been very unwell with a very fixable condition that has cost over £1k at the moment and treatment not yet finished. I don’t know what the end cost will be but we wouldn’t be able to find a couple of grand + just like that, so insurance for us is a must despite the monthly cost

When my old Labrador got to nine we stopped insuring him . His arthritis medication was about £50/month and a few years later he had a major operation costing £2.5k, but by that time we had saved that in premiums. Over his lifetime we more than broke even.

Thank you all for your sound advice

I think I'll do as most have suggested - I'm assuming once both cruciate ligaments have been operated on then there can't be much left to claim on so it doesn't really matter if it's excluded. So just the arthritis that won't be covered.

I've got quotes for a new lifetime cover with alternative provider at a much more reasonable £65 a month which I think we're happy to pay.

We've had a really unlucky couple of years with expensive surgeries so I think for peace of mind I'd like to have some sort of cover.

I think over the years we've definitely had more out of them than we've put in so feel we're on the right side of the scales at the moment!

If you can afford £250 a month, find out what other insurers are coming in at. Save the difference in a dedicated account to dip into for the ongoing treatments a new insurer won’t cover.

I'd do what you're doing, exclude the arthritis but still get cover - my priceless old retriever had arthritis, and then got nerve degeneration in his neck (another expensive op) then lasted a few more years after that

Option 2, depending on how much the injections cost.

We recently did the same, though there were no ongoing meds. We cancelled and went back with the same insurer as a new customer and halved the premium.

Make sure you check out Maximum Benefit policies and not just Lifetime. Often cheaper.

My only concern would be that any new insurer might try their best to link other future conditions to the legs/ops he’s had in the past. No matter how tenuous. We had an old greyhound girl a few years ago who had a small issue with urine leakage (lots of elderly female dogs that have been spayed have this) easily remedied with a daily tablet. However, when she went on to develop kidney problems that required testing, medication, prescription food etc the insurance company refused the claim based on previous bladder issues that they ruled must therefore link to kidney problems. They didn’t . The veterinarian wrote to them stating no connection but they wouldn’t waver. I did eventually get it overturned but it took a long time and a lot of correspondence and I’d paid out a lot of money in the meantime .

Our dog is 14 and has arthritis and high BP so is on twice daily meds . His insurance renewal came in at £225 per month . I’ve cancelled as frankly although it covers his ongoing treatment I would probably not have anything major done to him as he is quite doddery , deaf and a bit mad . His ongoing treatments will not cost me £225 per month even if I include his 6 monthly blood tests and I do have money I can use if I decide to / need it .