I'm 71 and DAN won't insure me -- now what?

[caydiver]

With DAN Europe the treatment doesn’t start until after someone at DAN has been reached. It doesn’t always happen on a timely basis. With the plan most Americans have, the treatment can start once the dive doc says go and the team is in place. It is smoother so at least that is a plus.
Had a conversation about age and diving with an Instructor here yesterday afternoon and he was saying he thought there should be a cut off age for diving period. He talked about people north of 60! I would be hanging up my fins. He apparently has just come off a bad experience with someone 68 who skill set was far deteriorated and afterwards admitted to doctoring his medical statement. Bad practice and misrepresentation about health and proficiency are probably the two biggest issues that have insurance companies etc putting their backs up. It makes it difficult for every diver from the newbie to most proficient. It is sad that some folks have such little respect even for their own personal well being.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

It is accident insurance that in part covers medical things. The likelihood of an accident is not clearly related to age, even though the likelihood of a medical event might be. Accidents tend to happen more to the inexperienced divers and the foolhardy, not actually the older divers, who tend more to be old rather than bold, and often quite experienced. So there is some counter-balancing going on....the older divers may have more medical events, but fewer accidents....thus the cost of the insurance need not necessarily increase with age.

Some clarification: We are discussing "travel insurance". Not sure why you are using the term "accident insurance" as this is not a standard insurance term. What do you mean by "accident insurance"?

The world of insurance is easier to comprehend if you think about types of coverage first and then the cause of the incident second. Lower priced insurance products in general will exclude more causes and/or have lower benefit limits.

A travel insurance product can offer multiple different types of benefits: trip cancellation, trip interruption, emergency medical care, accidental death or dismemberment, air flight accident, baggage loss, rental car damage, emergency return, ...

It is a well known actuarial concept that older (70+) and young (20ish) people both have high incident rates. Young people are brash and foolish, old people are slow and feeble.

Emergency medical care is the travel insurance benefit that seems to be most talked about on SB.

 

[KathyV]

I got a notice last week that DAN won't continue my dive insurance because I'm now 71. Dive Assure won't insure me for incidents in the US.

Anyone know of another company that will insure a diver for dive incidents? My insurance now expires July 31.

Peter, were you able to arrange new dive insurance other than DAN?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Some clarification: We are discussing "travel insurance". Not sure why you are using the term "accident insurance" as this is not a standard insurance term. What do you mean by "accident insurance"?

"Accident insurance" is the term DAN uses to refer to, well, here it is: DAN | insurance: dive. As I understand it, DAN's accident insurance does not cover costs of medical events UNLESS they were the result of an "accident," as DAN defines the term.

 

[tursiops]

Some clarification: We are discussing "travel insurance".

No, we are not. Don't get too hung up on YOUR semantics.

"Accident insurance" is the term DAN uses to refer to, well, here it is: DAN | insurance: dive. As I understand it, DAN's accident insurance does not cover costs of medical events UNLESS they were the result of an "accident," as DAN defines the term.

Yes, DAN sells dive insurance for dive accidents, and travel insurance (single trip or annual) for travel. Having the first is essential, having the second is nice, especially if your travel a lot in which case the annual is a good deal.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

"Accident insurance" is the term DAN uses to refer to, well, here it is: DAN | insurance: dive. As I understand it, DAN's accident insurance does not cover costs of medical events UNLESS they were the result of an "accident," as DAN defines the term.

DAN provides medical insurance (the type of benefit) for dive accidents (the cause of the incident). It is low cost medical insurance since they have a huge set of exclusions (every thing but diving).

My above explanation was from the actuarial side of the world. Unfortunately the marketing peeps jump in and confuse things for the buying public. Sorry for any confusion. DAN Insurance is a sales and marketing body.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

No, we are not. Don't get too hung up on YOUR semantics.

Yes, DAN sells dive insurance for dive accidents, and travel insurance (single trip or annual) for travel. Having the first is essential, having the second is nice, especially if your travel a lot in which case the annual is a good deal.

I agree that having appropriate travel medical insurance is a good idea. A good generic travel insurance product will provide medical benefits that include diving as the cause. Some low end travel medical products have exclusions for certain hazardous sports (hang gliding, parachuting, rock climbing, and even scuba diving). You need to check the policy details

As above, I apologize since I am using actuarial semantics and not marketing semantics.

 

[iamrushman]

this is a very informative thread...thank you all for your contributions....

 

[timetraveler]

I have had a similar experience to that of the OP. DH and I are both over 70. Previously we bought DAN Guardian insurance because it is the only one they offer that covers search and rescue. It's unlikely that we'd be dragged away by a strong current while shore diving in Bonaire, but it's possible. When I renewed my DAN membership yesterday, I noticed that "Guardian" was not available in their insurance drop-down menu. I called and was told that we're too old for Guardian. So we had to settle for "Preferred". The DAN agent did say that they were working on a new policy. We live in Florida. Does anyone know of a policy that covers search and rescue?

 

[Peter Guy]

Haven't found more dive insurance yet (and haven't looked that hard to tell the truth). It may be that I stop diving come August 1 for a while.