This article explains co-insurance in pet insurance in plain English, so UK pet owners can understand the question being answered before comparing policies or reading the small print.
If you've just had a claim back and noticed you're paying a chunk of it yourself on top of your excess, you've probably come across co-insurance. It catches a lot of people off guard, often because it wasn't entirely obvious when they took the policy out.
What co-insurance actually is
Co-insurance, sometimes called co-payment, means you pay a percentage of every vet bill in addition to your excess. So if your policy has a £150 excess and 20% co-insurance, and your bill comes to £1,000, you pay £150 excess plus 20% of the remaining £850, which is another £170. Total out of pocket: £320. The insurer pays the rest.
On a smaller claim that might feel manageable. On a larger one, particularly anything running into thousands, it adds up fast.
Why do policies have it?
Insurers include co-insurance partly to manage claims costs and partly because it's felt that when policyholders have some financial skin in the game, they make slightly different decisions about treatment options. Whether you agree with that logic or not, it's a fairly common feature, particularly in policies aimed at older pets.
Some insurers apply co-insurance from a certain age, typically somewhere between seven and nine depending on the policy. So your policy might not have had co-insurance when you took it out but it appeared at renewal once your pet passed that age threshold. This is absolutely something to check when you get your renewal documents each year.
"On a smaller claim it might feel manageable. On a larger one, anything running into thousands, it adds up fast."
Is it the same as an excess?
No, they're separate things. The excess is usually a fixed amount you pay first, before the insurer contributes anything. Co-insurance is a percentage of whatever remains after the excess has been taken off. Some policies have both, some have just one, some have neither.
Can you avoid it?
Some policies don't have co-insurance at all, or only introduce it at a later age than others. If this is a concern, it's one of the specific things a policy detail to check in a policy's terms before you take it out or switch at renewal, not just the monthly premium. Our excess guide explains how the two things work together if that's helpful.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice of any kind.