DAN Members, DAN Insurance, are you, do you?

[delvego]

SIGN UP!!!!!!
I am a member and boy.. did I use them.. and man were they great!!!
LOng story, but in Fiji DAN was there for me finacially, but even more important to me at the time... emotionally.
For what they gave me - the money it costs to get insured was like not picking up the penny you see on the ground cuz its not heads up!!.
k

How many of you are DAN members? And how many have DAN's dive insurance?
Just wanted to open up a discussion on this subject, as I was thinking about signing up.
Any input is welcome.
Thanks,
David

 

[delvego]

AND hence... the need to get on the phone with a diver who is a Doctor and talk about whats ailing you... so you know you should get into the chamber instead of getting bled by the local witch doctor on the island.
You can call them and talk to them when something happens and get the right advise.
k.

nod... we dont' have national health insurance in the US, as i'm sure you know,
and most health/medical insurance policies don't cover diving accidents and so on,
hence the need for the DAN, PADI, etc. diving insurance policies

 

[delvego]

Funny you mention $20,000 worth of decompression chamber moola.... thats exactly what DAN paid for me.
AND the helicptor rides, while very entertaining (we saw some whale sharks down below) was a nessesity to get me to the chamber.
not scare tactics.... reality.

Hi Becky, Actually, I don't have any problem with DAN. What caused me to even look up this thread is that I was with a diving class last weekend and the instructor said that DAN insurance should be a requirement and every student should strongly consider having DAN insurance. She talked about $100,000 helocopter rides and $20,000 trips in the decompression chamber. These are the scare tactics that DAN is feeding our dive industry.

It was her class so I kept my mouth shut during the class to avoid conflicting with an instructor's statements. As you can tell from my posts, I am of the exact opposite opinion. DAN Insurance is a good deal for the diving professional who is in the water real often and/or takes trips overseas frequently. For the rest of us, we are paying premiums at a rate that should only apply to the professionals. I can't understand the motivation of an instructor to tell somebody that will probably only dive 4 or 5 times in the next year that they need insurance. What horible advise.

I started reading this thread and found that the brain washing has spread across the industry. The lemmings were all saying "ME TOO" and others were being convinced.

The message that should go out is DAN Insurance is a horible investment to cover something that happens once each 10,000 dives or so. The money you send them is a waste. If it makes you feel better, send it in. Stop advising others that don't need it that is is necessary. Its really poor advise.

 

[dlndavid]

Just wanted to say hi to all my fellow DAN members.
Got the preferred plan.

Thanks delvego,
This was from page 2 of this thread.

 

[delvego]

Ya!!

 

[jeffinhburg]

Being a business man, and lucky enough to know the ends and outs of business activity, I can assure you that no one is getting rich from DAN premiums. There are office personnel to pay, paper to buy, inkjets, paper clips, phone lines....you name it.

The $100 premium is probably close to the minimum amount needed to cover those costs and crank out a viable contract that will also stand strong on its claim of coverage.

Except that if you were already a large underwriter, you would know that the MARGINAL cost of these items, the number of additional people and phone lines, etc., especially in light of the overhead being spread among lots of different products, is about nil.

 

[jeffinhburg]

On a call to the insurer by another poster, it claims that it does not cover any type of evacuation if the accident occurs within 50 miles of home (despite my inability to find this limitation in the certificate itself as it would relate to diving injuries), where 90 percent of my diving is. However, the nearest chamber is far enough away that an out-of-pocket transport cost, for example, could be several thousand dollars if medical supervision is needed. PADI's insurance supposedly does not have that limitation on evac. Seems to me the best thing to do is get PADI's insurance, since it is (hopefully) a more useful insurance product, and also scrape some pennies together, where possible, to support the nonprofit side of DAN, which is the arm that probably provides the human and nonfinancial logistical help that everyone loves so much. Another thing I can't figure out from the DAN certificate -- Does "skin diving" include snorkeling?

 

[citykid]

Lemme see if I got this straight. Only the Preferred Plan covers Medical AND Trip insurance. Otherwise, you have to pick and choose either/or both.

 

[blackman]

DAN europe member.......insured prmium

 

[D_B]

"it does not cover any type of evacuation if the accident occurs within 50 miles of home"

This is from Alert Diver (DAN Mag) Dann Orr, Exec.Vice Pres. and Chief Operating Officer ...

"... Unfortunatly, this is a common misconception ... ... This is true: DAN TravelAssist works when you're at least 50 miles from home, but your dive accident insurance is in force with you no matter where you dive"

heres another misconception ... my regular insurance will cover me if I get hurt" Are you sure? , Lots of policies don't cover "hazardous activities" like diving

I am a DAN member at the master ins level , like seeing the mony go to people who do the research that helps keep us safe ... instead of a ins. company that just takes my money

DB