DAN vs. DiveAssure (or, why does everyone seem to love DAN so much?)

[happyharris]

(Genuinely asking for information; not asking rhetorically. Also talking about US residents only.)

People one this board seem to absolutely love DAN. The answer to any medical insurance recommendation is "DAN". The answer to any medical question is "call DAN". (Same on Reddit, by the way.)

So, comparison price shopper as I am, I compare DAN with DiveAssure. Firstly, DAN's web site is annoyingly opaque. It seems I have to pay $40 membership for the privilege of even finding out how much insurance costs. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm usually pretty good at finding information on web sites. I had to find out prices from other places, like this board.

To compare DAN to DiveAssure, I picked the level that has $500,000 covered diving medical expenses, since that's the important number. At that level:

• DiveAssure has better coverage than DAN for Emergency Medical Transportation
• DiveAssure has better coverage than DAN for Search and Rescue.
• They each win some and lose some on what I consider to be minor coverages: repatriation of remains, accidental death and dismemberment, loss of equipment, etc.
• DiveAssure costs $129 for a year (includes "membership"), DAN is $157 (including $40 regular membership)
• Both of them have 24 hour hotlines and direct payment to hospitals.
• For both of them, membership includes medical hotlines.
• Both are valid domestically and worldwide (actually I am just assuming that DAN is valid domestically).

So DiveAssure from my point of view beats or ties DAN in every category that I can see, and is cheaper. I don't want to cheap out on insurance, but DiveAssure looks actually better to me, as well as cheaper.

What's the hidden feature that I am not seeing that makes DAN so much better? I'm not being argumentative: really I want to know.

Edit: typos

 

[lostsheep]

Does dive assure provide free drinks and a dinner party at DEMA ?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

As it stands, knowing some former employees of DAN, I wouldn't bother with them again. That's after having been a DAN member for 18 years until I retired from teaching in 2022. I had personal and instructor liability insurance through them.
They were an organization focused on safety and research. Now they are more interested in being an insurance company from what I see and hear.

 

[hdtran]

As it stands, knowing some former employees of DAN, I wouldn't bother with them again. That's after having been a DAN member for 18 years until I retired from teaching in 2022. I had personal and instructor liability insurance through them.
They were an organization focused on safety and research. Now they are more interested in being an insurance company from what I see and hear.

Happy new year!

That's a shame to hear your observation about DAN. I've been a member just about since I was certified. I've found their publications really helpful, and I've suggested to a dive buddy (who was having non-dive medical issues) to ask DAN about physicians who knew about diving and could give diving advice; my buddy also found DAN to be helpful.

I'm still healthy enough to go on dive trips once a year, and, if I pay attention to my diving environment, will remain healthy and not need to call the DAN medical hotline...

 

[Pressurehead]

I switched from DAN to DiveAssure some time ago.
The reason being, I could not contact DAN from Australia about an issue I wanted to talk about, it was just too hard.

 

[tursiops]

Two big things keeps me on DAN and not Dive Assure:
(1) my age (their coverage stops at age 75)
(2) Dive Assure only covers me OUT of the US, which happens to be where most of my diving is.....but not all.

 

[Pressurehead]

(1) my age (their coverage stops at age 75)

Well that's me done this year with them as well, I will confirm that.

 

[happyharris]

Two big things keeps me on DAN and not Dive Assure:
(1) my age (their coverage stops at age 75)
(2) Dive Assure only covers me OUT of the US, which happens to be where most of my diving is.....but not all.

Number 2 is weird. If you live in AK, AR, AS, CO, GU, LA, MD, ME, MN, MT, NV, NM, NY, NC, MP, OR, PA, PR, TT, UT, VT, VI, or WA, “coverage is valid outside of home country, worldwide”. If you live in AL, AZ, CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MI, MO, MS, NE, NH, NJ, ND, OH, OK, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, or WY, “Coverage is valid domestically and worldwide.” I would never have guessed that. But obviously a non-starter if you’re in one of those states not covered.

 

[tursiops]

Number 2 is weird. If you live in AK, AR, AS, CO, GU, LA, MD, ME, MN, MT, NV, NM, NY, NC, MP, OR, PA, PR, TT, UT, VT, VI, or WA, “coverage is valid outside of home country, worldwide”. If you live in AL, AZ, CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MI, MO, MS, NE, NH, NJ, ND, OH, OK, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, or WY, “Coverage is valid domestically and worldwide.” I would never have guessed that. But obviously a non-starter if you’re in one of those states not covered.

#2 is weirder than that. It also depends of if you are getting accident insurance or travel insurance, which are NOT the same.

 

[The Chairman]

What's the hidden feature that I am not seeing that makes DAN so much better? I'm not being argumentative: really I want to know.

Trust. DAN has been here longer and has done so much over the years for divers. They were there when friends had problems, and they were there when I broke my leg in Fiji. In over 50 years of diving, I've never been bent, mostly because I follow their recommendations, and am conservative as hell.

To reiterate: I trust DAN with my life.