Scuba Diving Insurance ProvidersScuba diving insurance is great to have if something goes wrong. These scuba diving insurance providers all offer varying levels of coverage. Read through and see if one is right for you. (Note: This is a 2 part article on scuba diving insurance - click for Part I).
Dan is a non-profit scuba diving and dive safety association. They offer dive accident, trip and equipment insurance. You join DAN and then are eligible for their divers insurance programs. A basic membership costs $29/year for a single and $44/year for family. Membership includes enrollment in TravelAssist which arranges emergency medical evacuation for any medical emergency. It covers up to $100,000 per person for evacuation costs. However, you must be more than 50 miles from home to be eligible for this coverage. DAN offers 3 levels of dive accident insurance - Preferred ($75/yr), Master ($35) and Standard ($25). These are secondary coverages and range from $45,000 (lifetime coverage) to $250,000 (per occurrence) depending on which plan you choose. The Standard scuba diving insurance plan covers accidents incurred within a depth of 130 feet. The standard plan also covers "covered diving accidents" which includes decompression illness and/or arterial gas embolism. The Master and Preferred plan cover accidents at any depth and also insures any "covered diving accident" and "all covered in-water skin-diving and scuba diving injuries". There are many diving injuries you could have besides DCI so these are more comprehensive plans. Among other benefits, the Preferred plan includes scuba diving cancellation and interruption insurance. Obviously you must read all the fine print when purchasing scuba diving travel insurance. A few years old, the plan of this scuba diving insurance provider has considerable appeal. There is only one plan and the current annual premium is $60/year. You have instant activation, no depth limit, no exclusion for technical diving, no deductible and no approval required prior to treatment. Their scuba diving travel insurance plan offers up to $100,000 in emergency medical evacuation and medical dive accident coverage. Among other benefits it also offers $2,500 of coverage for each of the following: diving vacation cancellation, diving vacation interruption, extra airline transport, repatriation of remains and lost diving equipment. Another relative newcomer, DiveAssure is a scuba diving insurance provider and offers primary coverage. However, they do not offer coverage in all states as of this writing. When I checked for a quote, their scuba diving travel insurance wasn't offered in NY. You just have to check for your state. Hopefully they will offer scuba diving insurance in all states soon since they are getting pretty good reviews. DiveAssure offers 3 levels of divers insurance: Diamond, Platinum and Gold. There is no depth limit on any of their policies. There is coverage, up to varying limits depending on the plan, for: accident medical and rescue expenses following a diving accident, including emergency evacuation; death as a result of a diving accident; loss of diving gear left on site of claimable accident requiring hospital treatment; repatriation of remains to home country; flight/accommodation expenses following a diving accident and diving vacation cancellation and/or interruption insurance. DSI offers 4 policies that should be used in combination with one another to get the best coverage. Minimum purchase requirement is $25. This scuba diving insurance is secondary insurance. The 4 policies offered are: Class A ($25) Covers all expenses related to the treatment in a decompression chamber; Class B ($10) All other injuries sustained while SCUBA diving or snorkeling, including cuts, bites, stings, broken bones, and common ear problems; Class C ($5) Ambulance services, including air, ground or water transportation, to nearest hospital or emergency facility and Class D ($20) Other watersports or boating injuries. PADI, the dive certification agency, used to offer scuba diving insurance. However, since January 2007 they have partnered with DAN and now offer DAN's divers insurance policies (see above). NAUI, another major certification agency, also offers insurance through DAN. Hopefully this overview of scuba diving insurance providers will help you choose a company that is right for you. For the amount the scuba diving insurance costs, it's hard to think of a reason not to buy some insurance. Especially if you are going on a scuba dive vacation. Of course, we hope none of us will ever need it!  Top of Scuba Diving Insurance Providers Go to main Scuba Diving Information page
|
