jumping without insurance

[thrillstalker 0]

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If you can't afford health insurance then how can you afford skydiving?

i've always been covered under my dad's company so it has never been as issue, and it will only be one for 3 months.

i hadn't thought about getting something temporary to cover catastrophic accidents, and i can swing a 100 bucks extra a month, just means skip one weekend of jumping.

thanks for all of the replies

"Never grow a wishbone, where your backbone ought to be."

[kkeenan 13]

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i've always been covered under my dad's company ...

Considering your age, has it occurred to you to stop living under your parents' support and make your own way in life ? When do you think you will consider yourself "grown up" ?

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[thrillstalker 0]

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i've always been covered under my dad's company ...

Considering your age, has it occurred to you to stop living under your parents' support and make your own way in life ? When do you think you will consider yourself "grown up" ?

im not going to turn down almost free health insurance. i pay this difference that it costs to have me on the insurance. forking out 400+ plus a month for no reason just goes against common sense.

"Never grow a wishbone, where your backbone ought to be."

[andyvaughn 0]

I did some research today on this issue, just outta my own curiousity. I am a case manager (which is basically a concierge service to the ill, when you break it down) so I get exposed to quite a bit of health plans and exclusions. I've yet to see one that excludes skydiving, in my 10 years of doing this, but a quick search showed me that there are some individual plans that actually do write out high risk sports, such as skydiving, scuba diving, etc. It also looks like many travel insurance policies exclude high risk sports. Just for clarification, while this may be obvious to me, it may not to some, an individual policy is one where you go straight to the insurance carrier and pay a monthly sum for insurance coverage. I wasn't able to find one large group insurance policy (where you work for an employer with and they pay a bulk of the premium and insure the group of ya'll) excludes high risk sports, but I did find one large group employer that excludes ANYTHING that happens to you as a result of being intoxicated...wow.
So, I guess that's something to keep in mind when shopping insurance....
And as to the comment that you can pay out of pocket for any injuries, I am not sure you have any idea how much a BRIEF hospital stay would cost...most hospitals charge a base rate for a bed, typically in the thousands, then you have specialist fees, xray fees, lab fees, medication fees, and since you don't have insurance, there is no negotiated rate in place, you'll be paying full charges...a simple broken ankle could run thousands of dollars, just for the hospital coverage, physical therapists bill out at about 150 an hour here in California...those visits would add up quick, pain medication ain't cheap, antibiotics aren't cheap...you get my point....

[deltron80 0]

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obama's new health care bill (i would rather just not have insurance), lets me remain on my parents insurance until i am 26.

the uninsured are inflicting a much greater expense on society and your fellow tax payers than people covered under state plans. sorry to break the news to you.

[NWFlyer 2]

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i've always been covered under my dad's company ...

Considering your age, has it occurred to you to stop living under your parents' support and make your own way in life ? When do you think you will consider yourself "grown up" ?

im not going to turn down almost free health insurance. i pay this difference that it costs to have me on the insurance. forking out 400+ plus a month for no reason just goes against common sense.

Gotta back you up on this.

In addition to the cost advantage, given the current disjointed state of our health insurance system in this country, anyone who has access to group insurance (through an employer) is wise to take advantage of it - going into the individual market is higher risk to you; there are a lot of protections provided to those insured through groups that aren't provided to those on the individual market.

So if you don't get insurance through work or school and are faced with the choice between buying it on your own or getting coverage through a parent or spouse or domestic partner's group coverage - you're almost always better off choosing the group coverage.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[mjosparky 3]

Some people think it is their right to take risks, make their own decisions on such things as rate of downsizing, flying a wing suit at 50 jumps and doing demos at 100 jumps. They say they are willing to accept responsibility for their actions. But on the other hand they are willing to jump without health insurance. This is reflective of the “entitlement generation” mentality. I am entitled to do whatever I want whenever I want. When something goes wrong let someone else clean up the mess.
If you are an adult, skydiver or not, and do not have insurance you are planning on the rest of society to cover your ass. Everyone will need medical service on some level at sometime in their life. The costs of these services are so high that I can think of only 3 ways to cover them. 1. Health insurance, and that may not cover the entire bill. 2. Be independently wealthy, but in that case you would be smart enough to have insurance. 3. Be a leach on friends, family and the rest of society.
Skydiving is not a necessity of life; it is recreation just like bowling or playing bridge just more expensive and more fun.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[PiLFy 0]

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You need to check the insurance as it might not even matter. My insurance doesn't cover extreme sports and specifically excludes skydiving injuries. Why why everyone knows to cut my rig and jump suit off and toss me in the road. unlessmim dead the. It's all good as my life insurance covers me if I bounce

Wait a minute, Catfish. You told us you fell off the roof while cleaning the gutters(?)...

[kelpdiver 2]

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Putting a want over a need is your right (as long as you only hurt yourself, IMO)... But please don't attempt to change the very definitions just to justify your opinion.

Definitions are not static. They change with context. And even if you don't believe that, skydiving, as I described it in my previous post is a need by definition, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/need

80 jumps a year is a hobby. That's what - 1-2 weekends a month? I believe that's about the typical number for active USPA jumpers. (my single year high was probably 70, though the last major year was cut in half by a major out of sport injury)

If you get hurt without insurance in the US model, you have two big problems.
1) if you're in the tiny category that can afford to pay $50,000, you still have the problem of having to negotiate discounts for the phony "rack rate" for hospital services. The insurance companies may pay 20-50% of that value.

2) for the vast majority who can't pay out, you're not going to be getting modern orthopedic care. Broke your leg? Here, sit in this cast for the next several months and let it bind again! 20 years ago when that was still a common answer, my mom did 8 months in the cast after a classic tib/fib boot break. With surgery, she would have been walking about close to normal in 8 weeks. The atrophy from 8 months lead to perm issues with the ankle.

Then there's physical therapy. This is not outlandishly expensive - in San Francisco you could go twice a week paying cash for just over $1000/month. Not cheap, and well worth it, but a fair insurance plan would give you 18 visits. A great one, like my current, will grant based on doctor's indicated need. I probably have 50 visits this year.

so if you're in the cast for 6+ months, and then you can't swing any (or much) PT, you'll end up with a healed bone, but substantial loss in strength and agility and with time this gets very difficult to restore. What's 40% of your athletic potential worth?

Disability insurance is another really valuable benefit to have from work. It's not easy to get as an individual. If it's a short term (< year) issue, your state may have one you pay into that covers you reasonably well, keep the rent paid, etc. But this could be a long period where you can't earn any income. My accident took me out for 13 weeks.

[skydiverkeith 1]

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Putting a want over a need is your right (as long as you only hurt yourself, IMO)... But please don't attempt to change the very definitions just to justify your opinion.

Definitions are not static. They change with context. And even if you don't believe that, skydiving, as I described it in my previous post is a need by definition, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/need

This is really good informaton. Having insurance is certainly a much better idea than not.

80 jumps a year is a hobby. That's what - 1-2 weekends a month? I believe that's about the typical number for active USPA jumpers. (my single year high was probably 70, though the last major year was cut in half by a major out of sport injury)

If you get hurt without insurance in the US model, you have two big problems.
1) if you're in the tiny category that can afford to pay $50,000, you still have the problem of having to negotiate discounts for the phony "rack rate" for hospital services. The insurance companies may pay 20-50% of that value.

2) for the vast majority who can't pay out, you're not going to be getting modern orthopedic care. Broke your leg? Here, sit in this cast for the next several months and let it bind again! 20 years ago when that was still a common answer, my mom did 8 months in the cast after a classic tib/fib boot break. With surgery, she would have been walking about close to normal in 8 weeks. The atrophy from 8 months lead to perm issues with the ankle.

Then there's physical therapy. This is not outlandishly expensive - in San Francisco you could go twice a week paying cash for just over $1000/month. Not cheap, and well worth it, but a fair insurance plan would give you 18 visits. A great one, like my current, will grant based on doctor's indicated need. I probably have 50 visits this year.

so if you're in the cast for 6+ months, and then you can't swing any (or much) PT, you'll end up with a healed bone, but substantial loss in strength and agility and with time this gets very difficult to restore. What's 40% of your athletic potential worth?

Disability insurance is another really valuable benefit to have from work. It's not easy to get as an individual. If it's a short term (< year) issue, your state may have one you pay into that covers you reasonably well, keep the rent paid, etc. But this could be a long period where you can't earn any income. My accident took me out for 13 weeks.

Blue skies,
Keith Medlock

[craigbey 0]

3 months is NOTHING!

As another poster already mentioned, some of us have downtime during the winter that lasts much longer than that. Stay on the ground and take the time to learn some new tricks or simply enjoy a different pace.

And savor the flavor of that intense desire to jump again. The sky will always be there.

Perhaps you could hit a tunnel during the break?

[stayhigh 2]

If you can not afford insurance and shouldn't be jumping???

What about people who can't afford aad???

They are really fucked huh??

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[mjosparky 3]

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If you can not afford insurance and shouldn't be jumping???

What about people who can't afford aad???

They are really fucked huh??

You not need an AAD to skydive. If you go in, case closed no burden on society. If you just get busted up and have no insurance the rest of us have to carry your sorry ass. Its call taking responsibly for yourself.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[riggerrob 558]

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I love the NHS

No you don't. You hate it. Just like all Canadians hate their universal medical care. That's what all my conservative friends here in the US tell me and there's no way that they aren't right. ..."

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Skybytch,

Some of your conservative friends are to the right of Ghengis Khan!

Seriously,
The Canadian medical insurance system may be less than perfect, but it took care of my ambulance ride, (brief) visit to the emergency room, and three months of physical therapy. That physical therapy was vital to regaining 95 percent of the strength in my dislocated shoulder.

Canadian public health care worked great until Employment Insurance decided that I had been sick, lame and lazy for too long ... then things got ugly!!!!!

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