What I am asserting is that at least for the time being you'll generally have an easier go of it with DAN, especially in foreign locations, and ever more especially in remote foreign locations.
I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that.
You won't be dealing with some front-liner when it comes time to be released from the hospital. You'll be dealing with the finance office - and they are going to be well-versed in who is who in the world of such things.
It is at least somewhat likely that AIG built the hospital you will be in - no matter where it is!
Second, when it comes to whether a claim will be paid, it is all about financial stability. DAN's is a flat unknown. Yes, they have a many-year track record, but is it all good? From what I understand the answer to that questoon is not an unqualified "yes", and in fact some locations have a "chamber tax" that they expect all visitors who are diving to pay - ostensibly to cover "uninsured" divers. You pay even if you have DAN insurance and can prove it with your card!
I am not defending DiveAssure here. In fact, their insurance program is one that I personally do not like, but its not due to any questions about AIGs stability or name recognition - something that simply cannot be questioned when it comes to the world of international finance. Nor is their international underwriting questionable - their international arm is underwritten by Lloyds!
That is the gold-standard of insurance on a world-wide basis.
It is their weasel-words in the policy that bother me.
There are several, and they are important.
As an example, they exclude anything contributed to by the use of alcohol. While we all know that tying one on the night before diving is unwise, with DiveAssure you might void your insurance!
Second, and far more importantly to me, they absolutely bar "underwater fishing".
Since 90% of the dives I do around my home are, indeed, "underwater fishing", they're flat out of the question for me.
Doc, as I said, from my perspective there are plenty of reasons NOT to like DiveAssure in their present form, but the name recognition from a standpoint of who's underwriting them and the assurance that your claim will be paid due to them being a "podunk insurance outfit" in some remote hospital's view isn't one of them. Nobody - not even in East Bufu - is going to question whether AIG or Lloyds will pay; they are the global risk-management outfits.
The real issue is the exclusions and how easily you could "step outside the lines" of their policy. This is the one place where DAN's insurance does excel, in that they are "any depth, any gas, anytime, anywhere" - at least in their "better" policies.