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dougr52
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What would i need besides regular membership to have medical ins while in Coz.
Dan Insurance
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There are 2 parts to DAN. Membership and insurance. Membership does not provide dive insurance only medical transport to nearest facility that can provide treatment. Insurance part covers hospital and treatment along with other stuff. Some levels of insurance inludes non dive accidents. No level insurance covers non accident medical. Master is the cheapest only covers dive accidents.
A dive accident is one that occurs while diving. Accident on boat going to dive site is not a dive accident (happened to me) broke 5 ribs (not Cozumel). Only Preferred and Guardian would cover those bills.
I thought DAN was great. Had to stay on island extra week and the flew me back business class because of injury.
A dive accident is one that occurs while diving. Accident on boat going to dive site is not a dive accident (happened to me) broke 5 ribs (not Cozumel). Only Preferred and Guardian would cover those bills.
I thought DAN was great. Had to stay on island extra week and the flew me back business class because of injury.
cozcharlie
Contributor
@DandyDon is probably the expert on this stuff and I would imagine he will reply telling you to get trip insurance, which may or may not be necessary given your particular circumstances (I am a flexible retired traveler, so weather cancellations and delays that might be a big problem for other people aren’t a big deal to me )
I am going to chip in with some fairly incomplete information and I will glad to have people add additional information if possible. First , you certainly need some sort of Dive insurance through DAN in addition to membership (I also think there is someone else in that market also ). They will not let you in the chamber unless they are sure they are going to get paid. You will have to read up on exactly what each policy covers.
The big thing to know is that as @NDL_Diver already mentioned is that while DAN insurance to cover various types of Dive accidents and other accidents while traveling, most of this insurance (as far as I know ) doesn’t cover just general health issues that might arise while out of the country. It seems clear that government insurance from Canada (whatever that is called ) and Medicare from the states don’t work outside of their respective countries. The Canadians seem to buy some fairly standard /well-known health insurance when they will be out of the country
It is less clear from a US perspective. If you have private/employer sponsored insurance from the states it might work (and might not ) outside of the country. I even went through the 200 page coverage document my major US health insurer sent me and I still don’t know. I purchased an annual policy GeoBlue travel heath insurance (loosely affiliated with Blue Cross ) that in theory will cover me if medical issues arise while traveling and my primary US coverage will not ( it doesn’t work if I am out of the country more than 60 consecutive days ). . I have no complaints about it , but I have never actually used it so who knows .
I travel so much that I am fine if I have some redundancies in coverage because in an emergency it might be good to have multiple angles to work and on cost per travel day basis the annual policies I buy are trivial . Anyway , that is some background which is hopefully correct—but I have never come away from any research I have done on this issue with a warm fuzzy feeling. Kind of wonder if the next time I have some minor health issue that I normally wouldn’t go to the doctor for I should go to CMC just try to battle my way through the system while I actually have most of faculties as opposed to seriously ill.
I am going to chip in with some fairly incomplete information and I will glad to have people add additional information if possible. First , you certainly need some sort of Dive insurance through DAN in addition to membership (I also think there is someone else in that market also ). They will not let you in the chamber unless they are sure they are going to get paid. You will have to read up on exactly what each policy covers.
The big thing to know is that as @NDL_Diver already mentioned is that while DAN insurance to cover various types of Dive accidents and other accidents while traveling, most of this insurance (as far as I know ) doesn’t cover just general health issues that might arise while out of the country. It seems clear that government insurance from Canada (whatever that is called ) and Medicare from the states don’t work outside of their respective countries. The Canadians seem to buy some fairly standard /well-known health insurance when they will be out of the country
It is less clear from a US perspective. If you have private/employer sponsored insurance from the states it might work (and might not ) outside of the country. I even went through the 200 page coverage document my major US health insurer sent me and I still don’t know. I purchased an annual policy GeoBlue travel heath insurance (loosely affiliated with Blue Cross ) that in theory will cover me if medical issues arise while traveling and my primary US coverage will not ( it doesn’t work if I am out of the country more than 60 consecutive days ). . I have no complaints about it , but I have never actually used it so who knows .
I travel so much that I am fine if I have some redundancies in coverage because in an emergency it might be good to have multiple angles to work and on cost per travel day basis the annual policies I buy are trivial . Anyway , that is some background which is hopefully correct—but I have never come away from any research I have done on this issue with a warm fuzzy feeling. Kind of wonder if the next time I have some minor health issue that I normally wouldn’t go to the doctor for I should go to CMC just try to battle my way through the system while I actually have most of faculties as opposed to seriously ill.
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dougr52
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You & NDL have been very helpful !
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I'm no expert but ill offer my opinion. You do need DAN Membership & dive insurance to cover you in case of dive injury or repatriation needs. And you need trip insurance with good medical coverage on any International trip. I get that from Giardi, the company DA.N gets it from for less.
I've been laid up in a hospital for a week and I'm glad I'm not paying for this outing.
I've been laid up in a hospital for a week and I'm glad I'm not paying for this outing.
One correction, DAN does have Travel and Liability insurance also. There travel insurance does have medical (sick) coverage and Accident medical along with a bunch of other stuff but I have no personal knowlege or experience with. I just briefly read their travel policy and I believe it covered diving accident to 131ft. Their liability is for diving professional.
No matter what insuance you get, read the policy carefully to see what is covered and when. Many policies have loopholes (ie preexisting conditions). As mentioned Medicare does not cover out of country medical but some private US medical insurance in the states do. I have existing Blue Cross and they have out of country coverage. Check with your existing medical insurance (if you have) to see if and what they provide and what medical facilities in that country they may have in there network (contact them and ask).
DAN membership and DAN insurance are two separate purchases but a good value to have for a yearly premium. I believe the insurance portion covers you 50 miles or more from your home. I have both. Then I add a travel insurance policy for my international travel. www.insuremytrip.com is a nice aggregator site to compare plans and policies depending on what you need. Then I also pay for my travel with a credit card that has some travel benefits, i.e., trip cancellation, interruption, delay or rental car coverage. There's some overlap in coverage benefits, but that's okay for me to feel adequately covered.
ccannon707
Contributor
Not about DAN, but re medical coverage. Several years ago my husband got sick on one trip and ended up at Clinica San Miguel in a hospital bed for several days. Thankfully he was eventually OK, but to be discharged you have to pay the bill... in his case around $5K. All you can do is pull out the credit card. We requested and got all the diagnosis/treatment info typed up in English from CSM. Had to have a few things redone as they mis-spelled his name. I typed a letter explaining what happened and submitted it all to our health insurer, Kaiser, here in California. He had Medicare Advantage. They reimbursed him for everything but the pharmaceutical drugs. One thing he kept raving about was the food they gave him at CSM - wonderful!
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