American Express international medical insurance

[vtgoodlivin]

Hello all

It's been awhile since I've been to the board.
My diving life has reduced significantly in the past couple of years. I used to be insured with DAN but it is now expired. I'm heading down to Tulum for my honeymoon and plan to do a few dives, has anyone use AMEX medical insurance?
AMEX covers emergency evacuation up to 500K and medical insurance up 75K.
It is a direct payment service , so if I need to take a helicopter ride , I give them my card , make a phone call, and the bill will be paid.
For 14.95, sounds like a deal to me. Am I missing something?

 

[BlueC5Kitten]

You might want to contact AMEX to find out if it also pays for rides in the deco-chamber! I, personally, would keep up my DAN coverage, but contact AMEX to find out if the cover an accident while diving.

Many insurances have a lot of caveats that require them to limit coverage to travelers who are not engaging in "life-threatening sports."

Just my 2¢, though!

 

[vtgoodlivin]

thanks for responding
I called twice and yes they cover scuba diving and since it's direct payment they will pay for the deco-chamber

 

[mselenaous]

My advise, for your own protection, is get that in writting from AMEX. Getting the answer verbally from one person doesn't necessarily guarantee getting the same info from another...especially the claims adjuster after the crisis has happened.

FYI, I know someone who recently got evacuated last month from Truk, chamber ride, and expenses from changing travel itinerary (3 days hotel, etc) were covered. He said DAN was on top of it all the way. His only comment was that all the paperwork involved between DAN and his primary health insurance was enough to deter him from ever getting into that situation again.

Just my 2 psi.

 

[Dtaine]

thanks for responding
I called twice and yes they cover scuba diving and since it's direct payment they will pay for the deco-chamber

My advise, for your own protection, is get that in writting from AMEX. Getting the answer verbally from one person doesn't necessarily guarantee getting the same info from another...especially the claims adjuster after the crisis has happened.

Bingo, get it in writing. When I got my shots for international travel to Roatan, the health center recommended insurance to me. I looked at it, immediately read through the "exceptions" and realized that scuba diving wasn't covered. Needless to say I went with another company for that trip's insurance.

 

[vtgoodlivin]

FYI- For anyone that is looking into AMEX for insurance, this is my final conclusion:

After calling repeatably, all customer support people I spoke with said scuba diving was not excluded and therefore was covered. This for me is taking a leap of faith. They would not give me anything in writing saying that scuba was coved only that it wasn't excluded. My last and final call ended with a nice gentleman that said that they would review claims and determine if a medical emergency was caused by putting oneself at undue risk, which would not be covered. It is way to easy to infer that scuba would fall into that category, therefore I will not be using their insurance and will go with DAN.

I just wanted to put this thread to rest for anyone else who is curious.