Exactly. You feel my pain....and it is times two, of course.
It is NOT a good deal, but it is beginning to look like the ONLY deal.
(I hope I am not hijacking the thread here. Some of what I am writing may apply to Travel Guard policies outside the U.S if they are offered. And, having now read through 4 pages of comments, I am aware that some of this below is redundant, and some of it is just a rant.)
DAN insurance coverage this year is actually worse than you think. You may know that they did not formally announce that their basic dive insurance no longer covered people over 70 (I think I am right about the age) until they supposedly negotiated relief from their insurance provider for next year's renewal. I say "supposedly" because I am not sure that I am covered by this since I still have last year's dive insurance policy. I am not clear on what happened and how they fixed it. I got one of their people to tell me on the phone "don't worry, you are covered now." But then, I never officially knew that at one time I wasn't.
But the travel policy has problems in addition to its dramatic increase in cost. If you review your travel policy from last year and compare it to this one, you will see that the current policy does not have the section called "Emergency Evacuation and Repatriation of Remains." Last year that was $500,000 of transportation coverage at the middle level policy. This is the coverage for getting you back to the U.S., dead or (more important) alive if you have an accident or get sick. So double the price and much less coverage for high ticket items like medical extraction. You have to actually read the policies side by side to see the significance of this omission. Your DAN dive insurance policy is not going to help you here, even though it has some medical coverage.
It seems that all the companies got together this year and doubled the cost for their policies
and kicked up the cost even more for older people. Why? Because they can, I guess, if they all do it together. The easiest way to see what they did is to look at the policy cost as a percent of the trip cost. Look at what percentage you paid last year versus this year. The cost of DAN's policy (middle range) for someone 47 years old is 9 - 10% of the trip cost; it is 10 - 12% at 67, so not much change. But at 62, it jumps to 15% and is 20% at 77.
Finally, it won't help you on cost much, but I would recommend going to the Travel Guard website, which is the provider of DAN's policies. Maybe call them on the phone to go over fine points also. Their available 3 standard policies still include the "Emergency Evacuation etc." coverage and costs a bit less than DAN's policy. At first glance, it would seem that scuba diving is not covered because it is labeled as an "Adventure Activity," and excluded (see Exclusions). However, you can add it back in by purchasing the "Adventure Sports Bundle" add-on. I did that for two people for $11 total and I am 77; my wife is 72.
Once you get through digesting this, you might come to the same conclusion I did--why not buy this policy directly from Travel Guard with the Sports Bundle (look at the Medical Bundle also), then consider whether you are getting anything extra in the dive insurance you buy from DAN.
Clearly, DAN was asleep at the switch on these policies last fall. As a result, they have two policies that cost a lot more now and seem to offer no more, and maybe less, than can be obtained directly from Travel Guard or some other group.
