Insurance for Diving

[davis]

HI, does everybody on here have their own diving insurance ,e.g DAN and what does it cover ? If you have your own private insurance ,e.g BUPA ,does it cover you if you have an accident when diving? I know when training you are covered by the agency you are training with, but later should you have your own insurance just for diving?

[chrisch]

For the UK insurance is not needed. We have the NHS... Outside the UK DAN is a good option. BUPA and the like IMO are shit. My friend has BUPA through work and they were tossers when he needed them.

DAN covers DCI and a limited amount of SAR. Kit is not covered.

Chris

[Jason P]

Hi Davis – I work for BUPA and I can tell you that if you are a BUPA member in the UK and are diving in the UK, then most schemes do not have any exclusions for sports injuries or dangerous sports - so an accident in the UK would be eligible for cover.
In practice, most serious accidents in the UK will require accident and emergency treatments through the NHS. However, once the condition has been stabilised it would normally be possible to continue treatment and recuperation at a private hospital.
Under these circumstances, BUPA would cover the private element of treatment but a few schemes exclude this - so check your policy documents.
For diving abroad, a BUPA Travel Cover insurance policy (sold separately) does provide cover subject to some conditions - these are 1. you must dive with someone who is qualified (eg. PADI Open Water Diver) and, 2. the dive must not exceed a depth of 30 metres. If these conditions are fulfilled then a BUPA Travel Cover policy will provide full medical cover.
If divers are diving beyond 30 meters then this is regarded as a more specialised area of the sport (e.g. non-recreational) and those divers should seek either an endorsement from their insurance provider or purchase a policy aimed specifically at the diving community.

Hope this helps !

[uwila]

Originally Posted by davis

I know when training you are covered by the agency you are training with, but later should you have your own insurance just for diving?

Yes, yes, yes. Like the BUPA insurance mentioned earlier, many holiday policies have depth limits. In the event of an 'Oh sh1t' moment when you accidentally drop below 30m, you wouldn't want to find out that the very thing which caused the serious nature of the accident invalidates the cover.

I would say go with DAN.


Cheers, Chris

[CotoChris]

I Have three insurances: DAN, BUPA and a local Portuguese one MEDIS. I've gone through the small print and it's like what Jason says regarding BUPA. Although I have BUPA I still have DAN because it's more dive specific. For example if there was an accident and I needed a pot, DAN would lead me directly to the closest one. They also have their own knowledge of diver related problems. With BUPA although I've not had much hands on experience my feeling is that they are there to cover the expenses but leaves local health offials to decide on what to do. You must also have the treatments pre-approved but to be fair that is also the same for DAN.
It is important to read the small print though, they tend to be clear it's just that few people bother to read it.

[MartyC]

I have DAN insurance, cover is dependant on membership level, but also covers me for UK diving if more than 80clicks from home, so if things go T#ts up at stoney this weekend I'm covered

[ardhill]

Depends on what cover you want.

- You can get insurance for accidents, like DAN or looks like BUPA will cover too according to Jason P, as well as a couple of other companies, in Ireland you could just rely on the health service if you wanted.

- You can get cover for 3rd party if you damage anybody, or anything else and this may be an idea in Ireland. I know BSAC have tis cover for all their members, other clubs might - I don't know.

- You can also get insurance for kit & cameras and this is a good idea wherever you are as damage, loss or emergency ditching of kit can happen anywhere. If you have a bad accident, don't think the emergency services will carefully remove your drysuit - a pair of trauma shears will make short work of the most expensive suit! Don't expect your household insurance to cover sports equipment when in use.

HTH

[Janos]

Originally Posted by uwila

Yes, yes, yes. Like the BUPA insurance mentioned earlier, many holiday policies have depth limits. In the event of an 'Oh sh1t' moment when you accidentally drop below 30m, you wouldn't want to find out that the very thing which caused the serious nature of the accident invalidates the cover.

Many companies will cover you for this. I wrote to my insurance company and asked them if I would still be covered if I accidentally went below 30m, for example in an emergency, and they wrote back and said that I would.

Janos

[scribley]

I went with DAN insurance as I travel as much as I can, and I'm usually diving :-) I want to be covered for any depth I dive. Plus basic insurance is pretty good value at £48 I think.
My kit is also insured separately by DiveMaster
I also have yearly holiday cover for non-diving accidents while abroad..

[soldave]

Here in Japan, mandatory health insurance payments pays for about 70% of costs, but I've also got personal insurance and personal liability insurance through DAN Europe.