Does anyone have supplemental medical insurance, over and above WERA's $5k, that they purchased elsewhere? My insurance policy from work sucks, in regards to limitations of $15k per occurance while participating in a "hazardous activity or hobby", which includes motorsports racing. Luckily, I am fully covered for track days, since there is no "racing" involved. I checked with K & K, they have no policies for motorcycle racing. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
This topic has been dicussed alot here. Check out Blue Cross Blue Shield. For what your paying for insurace though work you can more than likely purches your own for a little more and if you do purches BCBS directly they will tell you that they don't care what you do as long as you are paying your premiums. Most all employers will purches packages from Ins. Comp. and to make it cheaper for the employer they will thow in things like what we all are dealing with termed as high risk sports or leasure activities. Also you are more valuable to your employer when you show up at work Monday morning not wearing a cast so they do this in hopes of deturing you from going out and having fun befor you die.
The only good thing about my insurance from work is that I don't pay the premiums. The company pays. The company gets insurance through belonging to a group, and the president of this group would like, in his opinion, for there not to be coverage (or reduced coverage, I guess) even for people that ride streetbikes on the street! Can you believe this guy?
Can you believe I payed for my insurance from my place of work and if I were to become involved in a auto accedent under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was at falt the insurance comp. would still pay 80% but if I were involved in a motorcycle accedent period they would only pay 20%. They did not cover any type of "High Risk Sport" or leasure time activity not even if I were riding my mountain bike down the street and were hit by a car. Employers want you to go straight home from work and set on the couch and eat chips and not move again untill it's time for you to return to work. I asked the lady in personel about racing and open track days and her eyes got as big as pie pans so just for giggles I asked her about sky diving and base jumping as I looked out the window at a near by tower. HEHEHE. They almost dropped me from there insurance but not befor I said "Law Suit" One othere thing can you all say AFLACK. I have there coverage but they still don't cover you during a paid racing event. Seeing as how there is money to be won then it is termed a paid racing event.
I guess your insurance from work sounds about like mine. Mine also only payz max $15k if you are involved in an auto accident and not wearing your seatbelt, and if you ride a street motorcycle without a helmet, even though there is not a helmet law in OH. I don't understand why WERA would not try to get more coverage for their participants. I think there are a lot of auto racing organizations that have much better supplemental insurance than this measly $5k. If the issue is cost, I don't see why they could not offer more insurance for an extra fee to the racers, and that the racers could have the choice of declining or accepting the extra insurance.
I do believe the issue is cost, but Mongo I think would be the one to discuss that with. Ether way I think that most all the racers would decline the extra coverage. Take myself for example, I crashed at Talledaga on 2/4 of this year ( Crushed heel bone = out of work for 8 weeks ). I opperate on a shoe string budget and that one crash has put me out for the season. After 4 months I have finaly put my R-6 back together and I'm hopfull to make the FSRA track day next weekend at Talledaga. For 3 races, gate fees, lodging, tires, fuel to, from, and at the track, maintanince to the bike, and food I'm already looking at 800 to 900 bucks for one weekend of racing. That's not counting if I burn up a set of tires during Friday practice or end up purchesing a set of rains, if that happens then the cost goes up about another 400 bucks. End the end it is up to you to make sure you have the proper coverage befor you hit the track. Have you talked to your employer about additional coverage?
Not yet. I was thinking of calling the insurance reps directly to find out. If something would happen and I wouldn't be able to go back to work for a while, the disability coverage I think would go into effect after the first week, but I don't remember for how long that would be in effect.
I wish I would have had short term disability at the time of my crash. But never the less I'm better off now, I have less stuff to have to drag around. I have long term with Afflack but it does not kick in untill I'm out of work for 9 weeks.
Insuance may be expensive, but think of it like a helmet - would you buy a cheap helmet?? If you can't afford coverage to adequately protect you and your family, you can't afford to race. If WERA got better coverage, who pays for it?? Racers will bitch and complain about entry fees going up. Besides, about the worst thing you can do is get a bunch of high-risk people together and buy insurance as a group. It's much better to get in with a bunch of 'normal' people and screw up their rates.
Because with all of the complaints we get about our gate fees being too high we figured that more money for insurance would really keep people away. Seriously though we are trying to see if we can work out something with K&K but it will be a while if anything happens. Also we honestly don't want anyone racing if they do not have sufficient insurance to cover a serious racing accident - and this means more than any supplemental policy. Our medical insurance is only to help with your deductible and the expenses some health insurance policies don't cover - it is NOT meant to be the only health insurance you have while racing. As for supplemental insurance held by other racing orgs - find me some figures. I'm curious to what other people offer. The heck with cars even - what does CCS/SFX/FUSA/PACE etc... carry? GLRRA? Fasttrax? Any of the other sanctioning bodies?
I don't have any figures on other insurance carried by other racing organizations. I guess I have just heard or read things from some magazines, but those organizations would be some of the major ones, like USAC. I don't know about any of the other motorcycle racing orgs. either, except AMA, and I don't recall their amounts off the top of my head. I did read something in an Open Wheel magazine about a group that racers can be a member of that offers insurance, but I misplaced the magazine, and I'm not sure if that was only for auto racing.
I'll search aorund and see what I find, I though the AMA offered soimething to members as well, I'll try to remember to find out more when we go up there next week.
I clarified with my AFLAC rep that yes they do not cover incidents during a paid racing event, but they cover me travelling to/from, practice days, even race day morning practice.It is only the paid race event itself that is not covered. This is why I chose to add them as my supplement and recommend them. I just don't know of a better choice at this time. Joe
Too bad they won't reword it to show professional rather than paid. Although you do all tend to pay much more than you can get paid to go to a race so maybe there is an out there somewhere...
[shouting]THANKS TSR!![/shouting], for the info. I just talked with Diana and she has coverage for racebikes, pitbikes, tools, riding gear, the whole pit except the rider. she told me that approximately $23 worth of coverage for about $542 per year. This is the smallest policy that they offer. It covers the racebike up to the point that it is under its own power...so again, everything except the race/practice session is covered. She said that it covers fire, theft while at the track or hotel. She said that the folks providing rider coverage quit returning her requests for quotes. Joe [This message has been edited by Comet117 (edited 05-29-2001).]
Found that article in Open Wheel magazine regarding a racing association that offes supplemental insurance to its members. Name is Short Track Independent Driver's Association (STIDA). Their yearly membership fee is $395. They offer $250,000 in medical coverage. Not bad, eh? I emailed them to ask if they accept members form other forms of racing. Maybe WERA could correspond with them, too. Email address is [email protected]
