Dive/Travel insurance for multiple International dive trips

[GrandWazoo]

Are you required to have "dive insurance" or "medical insurance that covers diving"?

Since we make multiple trips each year, we use annual trip insurance that covers diving. It includes travel medical, trip interruption and trip cancellation all in the same policy.

We have never had an issue with LOBs wanting specific dive insurance as our policy provides more coverage than Dan Dive insurance.

The liveaboard requires dive insurance, I probably need to read the fine print again, insurance is always a massive pain and coverage expense is excessive

 

[Centrals]

When was the last time that a multi international insurance gone under?

Lehman Brothers vs AIG

The Real Truth About the Wall Street Bailouts

It happens to be the one we already know

time.com

 

[Wants2divemore]

For trip insurance with medical coverage, check the policy carefully to see if you need additional coverage (like DAN). Some companies won't cover medical expenses if diving below 60' or without a dive master (Trawick is one, for example).

 

[tmuilenburg]

Heading to Indonesia in June. Should I get separate medical insurance, or will DAN cover regular trips to doctor/hospital for non-diving problems?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Heading to Indonesia in June. Should I get separate medical insurance, or will DAN cover regular trips to doctor/hospital for non-diving problems?

DAN insurance is accident insurance. It does not cover you becoming ill. I buy separate medical insurance for all trips abroad nowadays (though I didn't always do so when I was younger).

 

[rgkv]

I use DiveAssure, they have all the coverage you need. a lot of the dive trips I go on, if not all, require dive insurance

 

[tursiops]

I've always had DAN Accident insurance plus DAN Annual Travel insurance. The latter refused to pay off when I got Covid while in Egypt last year and missed a dive trip to spend a week in a hotel in Hurghada. But the DAN Accident insurance paid off under my enhanced coverage policy. I have no faith in DAN Annual Travel and can no longer recommend them; this also makes me leering of DAN Individual Trip Travel coverage since it is the same Company, Generali.
DiveAssure has two big limitations for me: it does not cover anything within the US (if you are a US resident), and it does not cover you if you are 75 or older.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Heading to Indonesia in June. Should I get separate medical insurance, or will DAN cover regular trips to doctor/hospital for non-diving problems?

DAN is primarily dive accident insurance. For non dive accidents, there is $30K in coverage if you have Guardian and $10K if you have Preferred or nothing if you have Master. This is the US-based DAN plan available where I’m in (California). I maintain DAN dive accident insurance but use Dive Assure for my travel insurance though it also includes dive accident coverage. I knew someone who concurrently chatted with both when an issue came up and Dive Assure was not nearly as good as DAN was even when he was hospitalized. There’s some non-diving medical coverage/evacuation included there but it’s a not high enough for my peace of mind since I usually buy Deluxe which is $50K or $10K if you’re going for standard.

I have good PPO insurance at home and they cover internationally if it’s an emergency but reading fine print doesn’t give you a definition of what’s an emergency or not. Too much grey area and potential for crazy medical bills so I buy Geo Blue Traveler Voyager which is really affordable. $0 deductible, $1,000,000 coverage which also includes evacuation and pre-existing conditions as well as dental coverage. It does not need to be an emergency to use the policy either. You can go to their contracted clinics and hospitals (there’s a convenient app) as well. It will be age and zip code dependent but as an example, I just purchased a policy for 5 weeks. I’m under 40 and it’s $90 for that coverage.

Since we are on the topic, whether you get annual travel insurance or not depends on the available maximum coverage and how much you spend on trips. There is sometimes a maximum amount for coverage and for Dive Assure, it’s $15K per trip covered or $15K for the annual option. If your total trips added up in a year are over $15K, you wouldn’t be able to cover all of it if you got into a catastrophic situation where you’d have to cancel all your trips for the next year. Lastly, their annual coverage was more expensive than buying them separately for the actual amount that I really needed the policies for.

At first glance it looks like DAN caps coverage at $5K annually for my state and it’s expensive for the amount of coverage which may not work for everyone. I also looked at per trip coverage and $ for $ coverage DAN was a lot more expensive.

You can also be selective and just insure parts of the trip that are non refundable and no credit will be issued if that happens. You’ll have to assess your concerns, actual risk, and whether you think it’s worth it or not. Don’t forget you have other avenues of coverage including your credit card if you purchase your trip there - another reason I like to book through agents (bonus points, more insurance coverage, better recourse if things go sour) and it doesn’t cost me anything more than booking direct. (For some resorts and liveaboards, they only take wire transfers or charge a service fee (3%, not a foreign transaction fee which may be separate for some cardholders) for credit card payments and it doesn’t register as a travel merchant for bonus points.)

 

[O-ring]

I do the same as @outofofficebrb. DAN Guardian plus DiveAssure for each trip. I usually take more than one international trip a year (primarily LOBs) so definitely run both options through DA or whatever your insurer of choice is before you pick. I often find that it is cheaper to buy separate policies for each trip than an annual plan with DA, but it depends on your trips and which parts of them you are trying to cover.

 

[Doc Harry]

I looked into DiveAssure to insure one trip. It was going to be about $1,700 for two of us.

So I just renewed my DAN membership for about $120 and got a similar policy with the DAN insurance.