Buy Dan Travel Insurance At Your Own Risk. Did You Know This?

[KeithG]

you get what you pay for.

low cost products can only be low cost if they have lots of exclusions and cover as little as possible. the insurance company is not a charity. they need to make a profit.

we are currently shopping for individual health insurance products. we have found lots of low cost products that would be totally useless if I needed a root canal. sorry, not covered.

we use a high cost blue cross travel insurance product. several multiples of DAN cost, but we are covered for much more than DAN.

 

[mmmbelows]

So, a Great Blue Hole dive isn't covered either, even though there's lots of DM in the water with you. Hmmm

Or at Truk/Chuuk

Or . . .

If a diver were to unintentionally slip to 121' . . .

Just make sure your dive buddy knows to toss your dive computer away if you get bent.

 

[Altamira]

Tom,
If your questions are addressed to me, I do not have a clue as to how they would interpret your first question. For your second question, my experiences with insurance companies is that they are generally happy to cover, and charge you premiums for events that do not occur very often. You can find out the insurance cost by going to DAN and other travel insurance websites, plug in your travel dates, trip cost, ages of travelers, and state of residence (did not see an option for non-US residents on DAN), and you can get an instant quote for the various packages offered.

Since I am new to buying trip insurance, and have used DAN Travel Insurance only once, I do not know if the wording in their policy is the same as ever, or has been changed. I brought this issue, and another one in an earlier thread referencing DAN Travel Insurance, to the attention of SB members only to save fellow divers some potential financial bad news, and to hopefully to motivate DAN to come up with a travel insurance plan that actually serves the needs of divers. Personally, I won't use DAN Travel Insurance again until they alter their Exclusion policy to remove the requirement for a DM on scuba dives. IMHO, their dive accident and travel insurance policies should be written in such a way as to provide seamless coverage to protect the diver. There should be no idiotic clauses such as the DM requirement, or writing the policy in such a way that a diver needs to fully analyze every word in the policy with such intensity trying figure out how the insurance company is going to avoid paying you if an accident occurs.

 

[WarrenZ]

We were not impressed with Dan travel insurance when we needed it. They wouldn't even cover airline change fees even if I paid the price difference on the tickets.

 

[TMHeimer]

It seems the best way is to get whatever regular travel/emergency medical insurance you think you need, then consider DAN for dive accidents that MAY not be covered with your regular insurance. I usually reply to the many DAN threads that have popped up by saying my particular dive habits/locations cause me to bypass DAN completely. My chances getting the bends when 98% of my dives are very shallow are almost nil, and chambers are always nearby anyway. Other than shark attack, I'm probably home safe after a dive or dead of a heart attack. But I can't argue with the 98% of divers who swear by DAN's dive accident coverage. Just surprised the travel insurance thing just comes to light now. We never take travel insurance anyway, just emergency medical, and have used it.

 

[Neilwood]

TBH I think that situation is true of most insurances (virtually all have loopholes where you think they should have cover).

Thinking of the fairly recent BSAC incident with Stephen Martin - insured for years through BSAC only to discover that, after the tragic loss of his wife and friend due to a diving incident, he wasn't covered for defence against criminal proceedings brought by Maltese officials. Thankfully, it did get sorted out eventually and this has now been closed but it is an example to all to check your cover. He (and many other BSAC divers as well as the BSAC staff and board) thought they were covered when it had actually been removed about 6 years earlier without anyone noticing.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for with insurance - you either get cheap or good, seldom both together.

 

[lerpy]

My experience is that most travel insurance does not cover diving accidents, along with zip lining, para sailing, water skiing etc etc. Anything that is deemed as high risk and unnecessary is not normally covered, which is why you need the specific dive insurance on top of the travel insurance. It may be different here in Canada, but that has been my experience. My travel insurance covers injury due to normal activity, and then my DAN dive insurance is specific to diving. Similarly, as I have pointed out to people that go to the US to dive, their DAN insurance does not cover travel. If you are in a car accident your DAN dive insurance is not going to cover that.

I think DAN has started travel insurance just to get in on the travel insurance market and although it is DAN it has nothing to do with diving. By simply diving in the St Lawrence here I need to carry two levels of insurance to cover all events.

 

[Altamira]

I cannot comment on Canadian insurance companies because I did not consider any of those companies in my search for the best travel insurance to meet my needs. What I can tell you is that of the four insurance companies I evaluated for my upcoming dive trips, all had exclusions for such things as skydiving, and all placed reasonable depth restrictions on diving, but only the DAN travel policy required a DM for all dives, even for certified divers. All others required a DM for non-certified divers. That is the source of my complaint and recommendation to make sure you know what your policy states and insure it meets your specific dive requirements and plans. It makes no sense to me to buy a travel insurance policy that will not cover lost travel expenses in the event you get hurt scuba diving without a DM unless you are certain you will always be diving with a DM. I suspect a great number of SB members would not fall into that category.

 

[iamrushman]

read and noted...thanks for the info.

 

[NAM001]

Im not sure this is such a big deal. Sounds like a protection for those ow's with a zixpack of dives going to >120. Dont they also have a clause that says they dont cover if you exceed your training. That makes the rec limit 132. Seize at 140 and your med coverage goes down the toilet. There is a lot more limitations like the definition of out of country coverage. and more if i remember.