BPA Membership tops 150 pounds

[dorbie 0]

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On the face of it, it appears a good policy. For £5 a month your next of kin gets £100,000 if you die, and I’d have got a cheque for £750 for busting my leg last year, and £200 a week while I was off work.

You also get £1,000,000 for medical expenses, but as I understand it you’d have to pay upfront and claim it back, and there’s no 3rd party cover.

And you wonder why you're paying out the arse for BPA membership.

It's one thing to cover your ass when someone 3rd party goes after you after an accident be it deserved or otherwise but if you're not prepared to live with the medical coverage you all have (NHS) and accept the consequences of participating in your sport then you heartily deserve the Right Royal Reaming you're all getting right now.

That adds £60 to your coverage so I guess it's optional first party coverage. Hopefully the insurance company can make it work and it may even discourage 3rd party suits but it hikes your annual costs to £210.

[dorbie 0]

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You think this should be banned? please explain the situation and circumstances to us all about these to claims that made you come to the judgement that this should be banned?

You can't ban a lawsuit by one jumper against another, but you can sure as hell remove it from the coverage offered by your insurance policy. Suing some broke skydiver is less enticing than suing the deep pockets of an insurance company.

Guys, you might DIE skydiving, that's actually the worst outcome and you get nothing, everything you have and ever would have been is wiped out in an instant. There's no insurance for that. Most other outcomes are LESS severe. If you can handle the consequences of dying you should be able to take your chances of getting sued by some other jackass or of being injured by one.

How dumb do you think insurance companies are? They're a business to make money not toss it on the bonfire. Skydivers suing eachother and each side covered by the poor sod who's the only company who offered you insurance. Of course you're going to pay out the wazoo.

[pincheck 0]

well only if i could get a divorce as my better half won't because she is close to her family do you suggest i maybe set up my own business lee ....................like, ion't know landscape gardening


fook mate i'm surprised they let me in the last time

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun

[Legs 0]

Dont get a divorce, thats more expensive than membership. Trust me, I know.......

Now moving to the US mmmmmmm

With love in Christ

[skytash 0]

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Guys, you might DIE skydiving, that's actually the worst outcome and you get nothing, everything you have and ever would have been is wiped out in an instant. There's no insurance for that. Most other outcomes are LESS severe. If you can handle the consequences of dying you should be able to take your chances of getting sued by some other jackass or of being injured by one.

In my circumstance death is actually a preferrable outcome. I won't be around anymore to have to live with the fact that I can't turn my head, let alone move my hands or feet. I don't have any dependents, so for me, death is better than severe injury. Mind you, I say that now, who knows whether if the situation arose I'd still feel that way and I could have dependents some day too.

Personal injury insurance is quite different to the insurance the BPA policy offers. Even if I had personal injury insurance, I don't think there is a reason why I shouldn't try to sue someone too and collect even more.

tash

edited for spelling

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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Even if I had personal injury insurance, I don't think there is a reason why I shouldn't try to sue someone too and collect even more.

tash

That's not generally how it works. What usually happens is the insurance company sues the other party to get their money back.

[dorbie 0]

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Even if I had personal injury insurance, I don't think there is a reason why I shouldn't try to sue someone too and collect even more.

Kaching!

Even when you make a medical insurance claim these days the insurance company WILL ask you whether anyone contributed to your injuries. If you answer in the affirmative they will go after them to recoup their losses.

[skytash 0]

either way, making everyone take persnal injury insurance doesn't seem to be the way to reduce claims against the BPA insurance.

tash

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[dorbie 0]

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either way, making everyone take persnal injury insurance doesn't seem to be the way to reduce claims against the BPA insurance.

tash

Agreed, you could remove certain types of claim from coverage and let people take their chances if fees are the issue. You have the NHS as a safety net which you all pay for already anyway.

In this thread I detect an undertone of entitlement when a UK skydiver gets hurt (beyond essential medical care), if you have that attitude you have NO BUSINESS complaining about membership fees, because you're the problem/cause of that. If you want a safety net you should buy it up front not sue for it and force everyone else to pay for it post-facto.

[skytash 0]

My own view is that I don't have any entitlement to say loss of income from another party. I choose to fall out of planes, and take my chances.

Unfortunately there is increasingly a culture of entitlement here in the UK and from what DH said at the AGM, I now understand better why he would not want to operate a DZ without insurance cover as a lot of the first time (any type) jumpers may choose to have that attitude and therefore he wants to be covered.

The BPA has also taken the approach that there is one policy which covers both jumpers and DZ's, that way everyone shares a bit of the cost. This policy may be arguable, for example, how many claims have there been against my actions vs the number of claims against say a instructor or a DZ, surely I should pay less of the share. The Insurance sub-committee believes that if there was such a proportional sharing of the cost, there may be not only fewer DZs but also fewer instructors, as they would be put off by having to pay more.

I haven't seen the numbers, so can't really comment on that view, I would say that in my experience there are very few individuals in the UK that make a living as an instructor alone. Mainly as there isn't enough work in any one place to occupy an instructor full time. Some are riggers too, some are military hence get their wages paid that way, others have businesses that do trips abroad as well, or also work as load organisers. Many dropzones still rely on the people who become instructors out of the desire to pass on a passion. If they had to start paying for that, they would go and the DZs would go with it.

It's a difficult problem, and I think lots of people have tried applying their brains to solving it. With all the facts and understanding of the bigger picture, so far none of those brains have come up with a solution.

I'm sure DH and any council member would be more than happy to hear from anyone who can come up with a solution, rather than just winge about the problem and the effect on their wallet. If it is a workable solution that addresses all elements of the conundrum, I'm sure it will be put in place.

tash

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[LyraM45 0]

yea, I had to pay for a BPA membership when I was over in Nottingham for the summer of 2005 and it cost me almost double in american dollars. I was not a happy camper and made me appreciate the lousy 50 bucks I pay to the USPA.


I don't know how you guys pay that every year, especially when you can't even skydive that much for half of the year anyway!

Apologies for the spelling (and grammar).... I got a B.S, not a B.A. :)

[pincheck 0]

All it will take for this policy is one bad year for claims and then either one of 2 things will happen

1. the renewal for the following year will be that bad or high the members will rebel and call councils bluff on it by voting no

or

2. The insurer will go they don't wish to renew the policy thankyou very much and have a nice day

then what

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun

[skytash 0]

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either way, making everyone take persnal injury insurance doesn't seem to be the way to reduce claims against the BPA insurance.

tash

Agreed, you could remove certain types of claim from coverage and let people take their chances if fees are the issue. You have the NHS as a safety net which you all pay for already anyway.

In this thread I detect an undertone of entitlement when a UK skydiver gets hurt (beyond essential medical care), if you have that attitude you have NO BUSINESS complaining about membership fees, because you're the problem/cause of that. If you want a safety net you should buy it up front not sue for it and force everyone else to pay for it post-facto.

taking this a step further, wouldn't everyone having personal accident insurance actually make things worse? Say I didn't have it, and had an accident, it would be up to me to decide whether I sue or not and I could choose not to sue. If I had personal accident insurance, I would get something from them, and they WOULD sue to try and recover their losses. Having personal accident insurance would therefore increase the likelihood of member on member claims having to be dealt with.

tash

Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

[iamsam 0]

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I don't know how you guys pay that every year

cos we want to jump

but what do I know