Scuba Diving Article
Do I Need Scuba Diving Insurance?
Not only do health insurance companies consider Scuba Diving a "high risk" activity and therefore will often charge Scuba Divers higher premiums for life or health insurance, your medical benefits may not cover you at all if you are hurt and require medical attention due to a dive related injury. You must check with your own carrier to be sure, and whatever they do tell you about your policy, get it in writing.
The alternative if your are sure that you medical insurance does not cover you for Scuba related accidents, or if you are a diver and do not have any medical insurance is to get a supplemental dive insurance policy. These will cover medical bills incurred due to diving accident, or in the case of "travel insurance" during a specific dive trip - which your regular insurance will not pay for. As with all insurance the cost of such policies will be based on your particular needs and the deductibles involved. One of the best ways to obtain Dive Insurance is to join an organization that offers such policies as a benefit to their membership. One such organization is DAN, Divers Alert Network. DAN is an organization dedicated to Dive Medicine and scuba divers health issues. There are several levels of insurance that are available with DAN membership. All members are immediately enrolled in TravelAssist, which provides up to 100,000.00 for medical Evac emergency transportation for any injury, as long as you are 50 miles or more from home. Other policies available through DAN either cover only decompression injuries, injuries received within certain depth limitations, or all diving related injuries based on the level of policy selected. PADI offers dive insurance coverage to any scuba diver holding a PADI certification. Like DAN's coverage there are levels available that will either cover the Diver only, or the Diver and family members. Coverage may also extend to all injuries or only specific ones, again based on the level of coverage selected. All of PADI's levels of insurance will only cover the scuba diver for incidents up to 130 feet, but may in some emergency situations cover injuries that occurred below 130 feet.
No membership or certifying agency affiliation is required to purchase scuba diving insurance form the Divers Security Agency. DSI has an A, B, C, & D plan and divers can purchase any one or all four of them in combination based on their individual budget and needs, the depth limit for any of the polices is 120 feet. A simple and straight forward plan that will cover all diving accidents at any depth using any breathing equipment, and offers reimbursement on travel costs among other benefits including loss of diving equipment is available through DiveSafe. A very comprehensive plan that will cover all medical and rescue expenses for a scuba diver and family members, and death and dismemberment insurance (as morbid s that sounds) can be purchased at varying levels of coverage from a company called DiveAssure.
For the occasional Scuba Diver dive insurance may not be necessary, but if you plan on doing any extensive diving, or even one dive vacation outside of the country it is a good idea to purchase a policy. Like with any insurance if you buy a Dive Insurance policy you will probably never need it, but in the unlikely event that something happens, you will be very glad that you signed up.
