If you are planning to self insure in a year Andy why not now? You'd have several hundred quid in the pot by then assuming hopefully nothing happens to her. In other words, carry on paying for insurance for her lifetime or self insure now, both plans make sense. But I dont understand a mixture of the two.
Because I expect next years premium hike to be even bigger + from 8 years old we'd have to pay 20% of any vets bill.