At what point should I get diver insurance?

[ThatDogDontHunt]

It depends how good your primary insurance is. I no longer have Dan. My primary is good and travel insurance policies can be way more comprehensive. Bottom line, review your current coverage. If you do not have health insurance it would probably be a good idea.

Agreed.

And it all depends upon what you mean by "diver insurance". You need to sit down and decide what type of coverage you require and what level of benefits you desire for these events.

 

[Water_is_my_blood]

^^^ this ^^^

many of us are over insured. meaning we have coverage from multiple sources for the same things. if there is any question about what is covered in your current policies (credit card coverage for example) make sure you get clarification in writing.

True. One benefit with DAN is that you get best treatment immediately as it is know to pay everything needed. With other incurancies hospital might want to confirm before treatment/evacuation.

 

[Dubious]

When my wife and I were certified our dive shop encouraged us to at the minimum join DAN, so our first year we just paid for the basic membership which includes the awesome magazine and I think limited insurance. The next year we upped our insurance to the master plan since some training we were going to take in 2020 required a minimum of the master plan or equivalent insurance. We budget the insurance into our diving fund and hope we never have to use it. Although not required we have had several different dive shop/boat operators request our dive insurance information if we had it.

 

[tursiops]

I lead dive trips. I will not take someone on a dive trip who does not have DAN dive accident insurance. It is cheap, and performs well if needed. And, if not needed, you are helping some fellow diver somewhere.
A major benefit is that DAN medics step in when called and provide professional assistance at your point of care.....anywhere in the world. Try THAT with your favorite credit card company.

 

[parzdiver]

Real life DAN insurance story. The incident happened on a shallow dive.

Friend was on a trip to Mexico diving cenotes and reefs. On one of the ocean dives he was going through a swim through and had to back up. His butt hit the top of the arch, didn't think anything of it. When he got onto the boat and sat, he felt a sharp prick on his butt (the jokes are plentiful). Didn't think anything of it, but next morning woke feverish. Hotel doctor visited and said it looked like an urchin spine was in and infected. They called DAN, who arranged transport to the clinic in Playa. Doctors there started him on antibiotics, but said he needed to go to Cancun. DAN arranged helicopter transport to the Cancun hospital where they did minor surgery to remove the shattered urchin spines and kept him on antibiotics to clear the infection.

He said his experience dealing with DAN was awesome from start to finish. They arranged and covered the transportation and worked with his primary insurance to ensure nearly everything was covered. His out of pocket was minimal

DAN insurance is a very small price that covered his a$$ (sorry, the jokes on this one are too easy).

 

[mmerriman]

I’m pretty new to diving and the max we’ve gone is around 50ft. (But on average, we do 30ft - 40ft)

should I get diver insurance yet? It seems the most likely accident I could get right now is drowning, which is treatable in most hospitals?

the second you start your training, and before you get into the pool.

 

[Tripp]

To which particular DAN policy are you all referring?

 

[SlugLife]

Real life DAN insurance story. The incident happened on a shallow dive.

Friend was on a trip to Mexico diving cenotes and reefs. On one of the ocean dives he was going through a swim through and had to back up. His butt hit the top of the arch, didn't think anything of it. When he got onto the boat and sat, he felt a sharp prick on his butt (the jokes are plentiful). Didn't think anything of it, but next morning woke feverish. Hotel doctor visited and said it looked like an urchin spine was in and infected. They called DAN, who arranged transport to the clinic in Playa. Doctors there started him on antibiotics, but said he needed to go to Cancun. DAN arranged helicopter transport to the Cancun hospital where they did minor surgery to remove the shattered urchin spines and kept him on antibiotics to clear the infection.

He said his experience dealing with DAN was awesome from start to finish. They arranged and covered the transportation and worked with his primary insurance to ensure nearly everything was covered. His out of pocket was minimal

DAN insurance is a very small price that covered his a$$ (sorry, the jokes on this one are too easy).

That's incredible. I might have expected a lot of insurance to try to weasel their way out of that, taken forever to find a doctor, not covered ground transport, and left him with a good portion of the bill.

To which particular DAN policy are you all referring?

Based on their website, most of the policies appear similar. However, the highest one has additional coverage for travel, and search & rescue. Other people might be able to provide more detail. I don't travel-dive much myself, but ended up buying the highest-tier because it's relatively inexpensive.

 

[Rob9876]

I think we pay (for 2 of us) $139 for DAN membership + their basic insurance coverage (I believe this varies a bit by state). Though I am admittedly cheap, it just seems like a no-brainer for the coverage it provides. As an added bonus, their magazine is actually quite good.

As others have mentioned, it's possible to get into various types of dive-related injuries at less than 50 feet. As for other insurance covering it -- well that's possible. However, most insurance policies are a labyrinth of interconnected defined terms and are like Swiss cheese with exceptions, caveats, limitations, and exclusions. Even if you have experience interpreting insurance policies, they can be modified by the Insurer unilaterally with notice after the fact. I also know my health insurance company seems to love to deny claims, and I would expect most trip insurance providers to try that also -- though I'm sure there are exceptions. All of the stories I have heard about DAN have been very positive, with them even going above and beyond what might be required.

Given all of that, for less than $100 a person it just seems that DAN is very much worth it. Just renewed mine last weekend before diving in a quarry that I've dived in many times with max depth of about 70 feet -- because stuff happens sometimes when you don't expect it.

 

[Cdncoldwater]

I waited for well over a year as I live in Canada; free health care, if they can see you in a timely manner I got DAN for a trip and have maintained it since because the benefits outweigh the cost, specifically search and rescue and gear replacement while diving at home. I did have their highest level, platinum I believe, when travelling and mid level currently; wish I had gotten it from the start.