Will medical insurance cover dive accidents?

[DougK]

To those that have dive a good deal:

What seems to be your thoughts on traditional medical insurance covering dive emergiences OUTSIDE the United States? I am most interested in what would happen in a DCS incident that would involve recompression, etc.

I have a Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO plan and heard some conflicting info, some folks say it will cover nothing, others are not sure.

**I am going to call the insurance provider and go over this with them. However before I do that I want to get a feel from some of you what experiences you have had.

 

[DougK]

I did not see that DAN insurance tread before posting. After looking at several pages of that post I found it dosen't tell a lot about why I would need DAN insurance.

 

[Rick Inman]

What seems to be your thoughts on traditional medical insurance covering dive emergiences OUTSIDE the United States? ad.

I did not see that DAN insurance tread before posting. After looking at several pages of that post I found it dosen't tell a lot about why I would need DAN insurance.

My worst nightmare would be to need treatment for DCI in a foreign country and to depend on conventional insurance. You'd most likely spend hours dancing with general practitioners in ER who would be lucky to properly diagnose and treat the DCI. Then, they'd demand cash payment upfront.
One call to DAN and you're all taken care of, including travel costs. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who knows anything about DAN who wouldn't recommend it.
Check THIS out, and THIS.

 

[Roz Amos]

Call your insurer and check, or read the small print! My experience is that scuba diving is a specific exclusion on many policies, so i have Dan insurance as well - is pretty cheap, and if you need it you will really need it!

 

[vjongene]

My worst nightmare would be to need treatment for DCI in a foreign country and to depend on conventional insurance. You'd most likely spend hours dancing with general practitioners in ER who would be lucky to properly diagnose and treat the DCI. Then, they'd demand cash payment upfront.
One call to DAN and you're all taken care of, including travel costs. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who knows anything about DAN who wouldn't recommend it.

So would you let DAN repatriate you before you get treated for DCI? For better or for worse, you will have to rely on whatever medical services are available in the country that you are visiting. In most places where diving is commonplace, there are also medical personnel with training in hyperbaric medicine, and a hyperbaric chamber. Whether your insurance will cover the treatment is another story. This being said, DAN or similar coverage will at least ensure that you will be reimbursed for the cost of transport between the dive site and the nearest hyperbaric chamber.

FWIW, in Switzerland medical insurance will cover the cost of hyperbaric treatment in full, unless it was determined that you were diving below 40 m (133 ft), in which case the coverage is reduced because you engaged in "reckless behavior". It is common for divers to carry complementary insurance to cover this eventuality.

 

[sharkbaitDAN]

Remember to check whether your insurance covers the transportation to a facility as well as the treatment. In some parts of the world, like the South Pacific, air evac costs can be well over $10,000, combined with treatment costs the total can approach $50,000. AFAIK, most dive insurance plans cover those costs, including all of DAN's policies. From what little I know about US medical insurance, very few will provide much assistance in dive emergencies, and I wouldn't want to deal with them from another country in any case.

 

[matt_unique]

To those that have dive a good deal:

What seems to be your thoughts on traditional medical insurance covering dive emergiences OUTSIDE the United States? I am most interested in what would happen in a DCS incident that would involve recompression, etc.

I have a Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO plan and heard some conflicting info, some folks say it will cover nothing, others are not sure.

**I am going to call the insurance provider and go over this with them. However before I do that I want to get a feel from some of you what experiences you have had.

I had Blue Cross/Blue Shield some years ago and looked into the same thing. The rep I spoke with said scuba diving accidents would be covered. The problem is the cost for scuba related medical treatment could possible exceed the coverage limit. Or perhaps more importantly, the risk of being out A LOT of money is so high that is makes sense to spend <$100 a year to get supplemental coverage in case you had an accident. This coverage, whether it's through PADI or DAN (I use PADI), has bells and whistles including gear replacement benefits, travel benefits, transportation benefits, etc. that your regular health insurance would not have.

There are a bunch of threads with the different plan costs, coverages, etc.

--Matt

 

[Rick Inman]

So would you let DAN repatriate you before you get treated for DCI?

I doubt they would want to. What I'm saying is that the odds of getting proper treatment improve substantially if you have specialists in DCI (like DAN) advising the local MDs, and you also have the money being guaranteed for the treatments.

 

[mania]

In Poland normal health insurance covers all diving accidents (including the transportation to the chamber) but only within Polish boarders. Outside of Poland it doesn't. Some of Polish insurance companies sell aditional diving insurance for those going abroad but not all countries recognize it. DAN is recognized all over the world so I'm DAN member.
Mania

 

[H2Andy]

DougK, keep in mind that DAN is secondary insurance. they cover many, many
medical costs relating to a dive accident that your primary insurance doesn't.

normally, primary insurance won't cover all (or most) diving related medical costs,
so it makes sense to have DAN as a backup.

check your primary insurance, call, whatever, and see if they will cover diving
medical costs (primarily decompression treatment), and if so, up to how much.

once you know that, you will probably see that having DAN makes a lot of sense
to cover the rest.