DAN Membership/Insurance

[outofofficebrb]

Thanks. Good info. It appears GeoBlue has a maximum benefit of $10,000 per trip for this product. Very limited.

How much does it cost?

depends on your age and how much coverage and deductible you want, how long your trip is. Or you can take an annual plan. I don’t do it because the medical limits for annual are lower. They have a chart on their website. It’s not a substitute for dive accident insurance in any way, shape, or form in my opinion. However, I responded with geo blue because someone in this thread asked if there’s travel medical insurance with no deductible and I see this product as a good one for that (travel medical, no deductible option).

I’m mid 30’s. I bought a plan for 35 days $1,000,000 $0 deductible. It was $88. It was going to be $72 or $76 if I wanted a $100 deductible and then went from there. Negligible in the grand scheme of travel budgeting so I went “all out” for the $88 plan as usual for the no deductible option. For travel medical, it’s quite inclusive for clinic/doc visit, hospitalization, emergencies, prescriptions, dental, med evac, some travel coverage/benefits all while including pre-existing conditions and the blue shield blue cross intl network.

 

[DBPacific]

Its not clear where you live, but in the United States, if you read your medical insurance policy very very carefully, you would be surprised at what you would be responsible for if you travel, even domestically but outside your contracted network. For instance, you could be insured in Boston, but if you get into an accident in Florida, your insurance might pay only it’s own network rate to the emergency room. There is nothing to prevent that emergency room to balance bill you for the difference between what your insurance company paid and what they charge to an out of their network patient. It could be a whole order of magnitude greater.

In the US I'm not even covered by a regional level. It's all based on who I see, if the doc is in that particular insurance network or not. I could be covered for one visit to the hospital and not covered in the next visit to the same hospital. Doesn't help that half the time no one lists which providers belong to that insurance network, or they change providers on you last minute. DAN gives an extra layer of security that that won't happen (at least not as badly) for a diving accident.

 

[Jcp2]

The golden years for medically insured diving for Americans appears to be between 65-70, from when Medicare kicks in to when DAN drops off.

 

[DandyDon]

The golden years for medically insured diving for Americans appears to be between 65-70, from when Medicare kicks in to when DAN drops off.

That's not a limit for all Americans. It seems to be so for residents of Michigan yes, but not for Texans. We don't have the Guardian plan no, but I am happy with the Preferred plan. Tell your state insurance department to change that or you're leaving the state.

There does seem to be some state by state issues. Why did they have to complicate that?

I don't know what you meant by Medicare and diving?

 

[Jcp2]

The thread entered into discussion of using DAN or another form of supplementary medical insurance for non diving incidents, assuming that there is coverage from a primary insurance. In America today, Medicare is the only insurance program that is widely accepted nationally for emergency events for the payment of the majority of medical expenses without balance billing by the provider. It’s a mandate of participation in the program, and there are very few hospitals and providers who do not participate, and even fewer who do not who would be in the business of providing acute care. That’s not the case for commercial insurance, which is what people who are not yet 65 have to select from. Hence the statement that supplemental travel medical insurance is a good idea for many people, even if the travel is domestic in nature.