Co-insurance means you pay a percentage of each vet bill yourself, usually on top of your fixed excess.
Co-insurance goes by a few different names depending on the insurer — co-payment, percentage excess, contribution — but they all mean broadly the same thing. You don't just pay a fixed excess and then the insurer covers the rest. You also pay a share of whatever's left.
So if your policy has a £150 excess and 20% co-insurance, and your vet bill comes to £1,000, you pay the £150 excess first, then 20% of the remaining £850, which is another £170. Your total out of pocket is £320. The insurer covers the remaining £680.
On a smaller claim that might feel okay. On a larger bill, anything in the thousands, the co-insurance portion can become a significant amount of money. A £4,000 bill with 20% co-insurance means you're contributing £800 on top of your excess, even with a comprehensive policy.
A lot of people don't realise their policy has co-insurance until they get their first claim back and the numbers don't add up how they expected. Its often in the policy wording but not always prominently displayed on comparison sites or in the headline details when you buy.
Some policies introduce co-insurance at a certain age, often somewhere between seven and nine years old, rather than having it from the start. So your policy might not have had it when you first took it out. Its one of the things worth specifically checking each year when your renewal comes through, not just the premium.
"A £4,000 bill with 20% co-insurance means you're contributing £800 on top of your excess, even with a comprehensive policy."
Not all policies have co-insurance. Some don't use it at all, some only apply it to older pets, and some apply different percentages depending on the type of claim. Its one of those things thats genuinely worth comparing when you're looking at policies, rather than just looking at the monthly cost and the vet fee limit.