How to Choose Dive Insurance

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catherine96821:
Primary VS secondary insurance...what are the issues?

Primary Insurance means that they are 1st to pay minus your co-pays and deductibles. They are a 1st line of payment.

Secondary Insurance means that they will make payment on the remaining portion of what the primary insurer didn't pay (the co-pay and deductible) or wouldn't pay ( like your work health coverage that has language in the policy stating it will not pay for XYZ treatment and you need XYZ treatment or will not pay for services in XYZ country and you are in XYZ country)

DAN is secondary coverage. I know DiveAssure is Primary, backed by AIG which is a very large Insurance company. Vicencia & Bucklyey (PADI) is also secondary.

There are alot of reasons that primary insurance is better than secondary insurance. I currently have DAN, but when it comes time to renew I am going with Diveassure. I don't know of any, besides Diveassure, that is primary. Does anyone else know of a primary dive insurance company besides diveassure?
 
Mo2vation:
Off the top of my pointed head:

DEEP

:psst: Mo', My Man... It's DEPP.

FWIW they rock.
 
DAN is secondary coverage. I know DiveAssure is Primary, backed by AIG which is a very large Insurance company. Vicencia & Bucklyey (PADI) is also secondary.

Okay...this is what I am wanting to apply some consumer scrutiny to...

DAN vs Dive Assure (I find grey areas when it comes to insurance to be a very bad place to be)

did not want to present it like that..but, no...I am not talking about my spleen or my camera.
Why is primary insurance "better" or is it?

who is DAN backed by?

Is there a way to check the rating by the insurance commission?

Seriously, if you wanted to be sophisticated about this, what questions would you ask? If you wanted more than "They made me feel good....or everybody uses them..."
 
I look at it this way, primary insurance is your basic health/medical/major policy from All State or Farmer's or Mutual of Omaha; good old-fashioned insurance that covers bills for an accident. The problem is that they may/will NOT cover an "accident" while diving, as diving is a risk sport, etc.

So, you get supplimental insurance that is risk specific: diving, skiing, mountainerring, rodeo, etc. That's why I buy DAN; that, and that DAN has a relationship with doctors that dive and DAN's understanding of hyperbaric treatment, and will pay for it.
 
Catherine,

I did a quick google for dive insurance and found the following website among the hits: http://www.scubalinx.com/medicine/scuba_diving_insurance/scuba_diving_insurance.html

Now, I must disclaim that I don't know anything about scubalinx or the integrity/objectivity of their poll/survey on the different dive insurance plans, or if they're affiliated with any of the insurance providers (perhaps more informed scubaboard members could shed some light on this). But for what it's worth, it does provide a pareto ranking of various dive insurance providers in the UK and USA. If you click on any link, it will take you to another screen which shows a list of 8 criteria used to evaluate each provider (professionalism, integrity, coverage, etc.). Of particular interest should be the score for the criterion "Claims Settlement." Interestingly, when one clicks on DiveSafe Insurance and reads the overview under the banner, it says "no approval required prior to treatment" (but it does not elaborate on the "treatment" whether or not it includes hyperbaric treatment). This info, if any good, is terse and in summary format. But perhaps it could serve as a starting point for additional and more focused research.

Aloha and happy diving.
 
Primary Insurance is better because you are not caught "in the grey areas". With DAN and secondary, DAN is going to make you pay upfront and then reimburse you what your primary doesn't pay. ie your health coverage. So instead of dealing with 1 insurance company you get the pleasant task of dealing with 2 insurance companies fighting over who owes what. If you go with primary coverage they owe it if it's a covered peril under their policy.

Doing a little research I found that DAN's coverage is also provided by AIG. They try real hard to hide that info I had to hunt hard to find it. AIG is a HUGH multi billion dollar Insurance company so the probability of them going out of business is extremely remote.


catherine96821:
Okay...this is what I am wanting to apply some consumer scrutiny to...

DAN vs Dive Assure (I find grey areas when it comes to insurance to be a very bad place to be)

did not want to present it like that..but, no...I am not talking about my spleen or my camera.
Why is primary insurance "better" or is it?

who is DAN backed by?

Is there a way to check the rating by the insurance commission?

Seriously, if you wanted to be sophisticated about this, what questions would you ask? If you wanted more than "They made me feel good....or everybody uses them..."
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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