Goto Chockstone Home

  Guide
  Gallery
  Tech Tips
  Articles
  Reviews
  Dictionary
  Links
  Forum
  Search
  About

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

  Shop
Chockstone Photography
Australian Landscape Photography by Michael Boniwell
Australian Landscape Prints





Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 2 of 3. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 53
Author
insure 4 less grade < 28 policy

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
10:35:14 AM
7500 Euro = ~ $10,000 AUD

http://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/Ambulance-Victoria/Operations/Transportation-Costs.html

Helicopter transport
$3,353.09 first hour $55.89 each additional minute

As an aside, if you don't have private health cover that covers all ambulance costs (some only cover the first $1000 or so), you might want an Ambulance Victoria Membership.

nmonteith
20-Apr-2012
10:37:23 AM
On 20/04/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>http://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/Ambulance-Victoria/Operations/Transportation-Costs.html
>
>Helicopter transport
>$3,353.09 first hour $55.89 each additional minute

I presume the clock is ticking once they start flying towards you?

I had a friend who broke his ankle in the USA (Yosemite) and his medical bill was in excess of $100k. He fled the country.

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
10:39:34 AM
On 20/04/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>I presume the clock is ticking once they start flying towards you?

If not as soon as the pilot gets the call. The rural ambulance fees are almost as bad:

(Please note the calculated kms includes travelling from base to the pick up address, and from the destination address back to base)

Emergency ambulance attendance and transport fee - Rural General
Flagfall $962.67
Time per minute $11.66 per min
Distance per kilometre $1.13 per km
Attend no transport $280.52

tnd
20-Apr-2012
10:43:58 AM
On 20/04/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>On 20/04/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>I presume the clock is ticking once they start flying towards you?
>
>If not as soon as the pilot gets the call. The rural ambulance fees are
>almost as bad:
>
>(Please note the calculated kms includes travelling from base to the pick
>up address, and from the destination address back to base)
>
>Emergency ambulance attendance and transport fee - Rural General
>Flagfall $962.67
>Time per minute $11.66 per min
>Distance per kilometre $1.13 per km
>Attend no transport $280.52

I had no idea it was that bad until earlier this year when some friends and I had our bikes down at Phillip Island race track. One guy broke his collarbone. Ambulance to hospital about 40km away - $2700. If he'd known at the time he'd have called a stretch limo, it would have been cheaper!

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
10:46:03 AM
Makes $40 a year sounds like a good deal.

Also highlights that you need to check private health policies closely. If your friend had one of the lower levels of Australian Unity for instance, he'd still be up for $1700.

Rough guess for the cost of an ambulance to Arapiles back to Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham:

Flagfall $962.67
Time per minute $11.66 * 75 (assuming they spend about 15 minutes sorting you out before heading back)
Distance per kilometre $1.13 * 75

$1921.92
pecheur
20-Apr-2012
10:48:41 AM
On 20/04/2012 tnd wrote:
>
>I had no idea it was that bad until earlier this year when some friends
>and I had our bikes down at Philip Island race track. One guy broke his
>collarbone. Ambulance to hospital about 40km away - $2700. If he'd known
>at the time he'd have called a stretch limo, it would have been cheaper!
>
Run this by me again, he not only rides but races motorbikes and doesn't have ambulance coverage currently going for less than $40 a year?! Seriously?

$2700 invested is probably enough for coverage the next 30 years ...

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
10:55:22 AM
Next 67 years if purchased in yearly lots, 70 if purchased in 5 year lots... Pretty well a lifetime of ambulance cover.

tnd
20-Apr-2012
10:57:16 AM
No no, he had insurance luckily - NIB - they paid 100%. But he was just shocked when they sent him the bill, he didn't realise it would be anything like that much.

Great health system. They'd carted him to Wonthaggi hospital, where he happened to let them know he was with a group staying on Phillip Island. He needed an operation - it was badly broken - but they couldn't get him into a private hospital in Melbourne that night. Because he had somewhere to go they wouldn't admit him, a nurse gave him a ride back to PI on her way home at the end of her shift, as we had all left the hospital after visiting him.

Next day he had to get a taxi to the hospital in Melbourne where he was to be operated on! (Because his considerate mates were back at the track for another day and too busy to drive him ;-) ).

He's also a climber so all this isn't really off topic.

tnd
20-Apr-2012
10:59:24 AM
We're all from NSW so didn't know the prices in Vic. What would it cost up here? Anyone?

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
11:00:41 AM
Your google fu is weak: http://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/Accounts--Fees.html and http://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/Media/docs/fees%20110701-640bc2b5-0a82-40ed-a92f-65e68cd34e11-0.pdf

RoadFixed Wing Helicopter
EmergencyNon-emergencyEmergencyEmergency
Call - Out$320$252$320$320
Variable rate (p/km) $2.89$1.56$2.89$2.89
Maximum Charge$5,248$5,248$5,248$5,248
pecheur
20-Apr-2012
11:12:06 AM
On 20/04/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>Next 67 years if purchased in yearly lots, 70 if purchased in 5 year lots...
> Pretty well a lifetime of ambulance cover.

Yes but I believe in the gods of inflation.

ajfclark
20-Apr-2012
11:20:10 AM
I believe in the gods of compound interest.
kieranl
20-Apr-2012
11:26:11 AM
On 20/04/2012 ajfclark wrote:
>Makes $40 a year sounds like a good deal.
>
>Rough guess for the cost of an
>ambulance to Arapiles back to Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham:
>
>Flagfall $962.67
>Time per minute $11.66 * 75 (assuming they spend about 15 minutes sorting
>you out before heading back)
>Distance per kilometre $1.13 * 75
>
>$1921.92
Sorting out probably takes significantly more than 15 minutes. 30 - 60 mins is probably closer. I've heard a ball-park figure of $3,000 for that trip. Still, these days at Arapiles if you're badly injured enough for an ambulance the odds are that you'll be flying. If you're likely to need specialist care that isn't on-tap at Horsham (e.g. orthopaedic surgery) they prefer to take you straight to where it is available.

Climboholic
20-Apr-2012
1:23:48 PM
On 19/04/2012 Wendy wrote:
>What a useless climbing policy! Fully equipped sport or top roping only,
>no new routes, no alpine, nothing over 3500m, no glacier travel, no multipitching
>....
>
>Hope everyone read the fine print when they used that - no trips to Cham,
>the valley, Squamish, most of the climbing in Britain, anything not single
>pitch in any of the famous sport destinations ....
>
>Of course, you can fall from 4.49m onto a crash pad and completely fûck
>yourself over and you'll be fine. Unless you weren't wearing your helmet.
> Which you probably weren't, because bugger all boulderers do, so again,
>you're stuffed.

Can you suggest a better option for travel insurance that covers rock climbing? AAC is obviously not an option.

Do you really expect their Sport Climbing policy to cover more than Sport Climbing? That's what their Trad and Mountaineering Policy is for.
wilbur
21-Apr-2012
12:43:19 AM
Last year I used IHI BUPA. They changed their policy from 01.01.2012 and now say:

we do not cover :
active participation in any motorsport show, motorsport race or motorsport
competition, base jumping, paragliding and mountaineering that requires specialized climbing equipment,

I questioned them about whether sport climbing fell into the category of 'mountaineering that requires specialized climbing equipment'. Unfortunately they said yes.

At the same time they added more exclusions to their policy they dropped their insurance premium. This might be nice for folks that insurance to walk down the street in some foreign country but ain't much use to me. Shame but if I was in the insurance business I wouldn't wanna insure climbers either.
Wendy
21-Apr-2012
7:02:57 AM
The 10000 is for medical expenses post rescue. all rescue and repatriation is fully covered. what that means is they will cart you back to your home country for you or the govt or your health insurance to foot the bill. The only time you will be seriously in trouble is if you are unable to be transported and rack up a massive hospital bill somewhere. i imagine you can contact their underwriter and get the limits increased for more $ in the same way you can get the length increased. So all that discussion about ambulance costs are irrelevant. They are going to pay for the helicopter to come and drag you out of the mountains.

This is a hassle free policy. It's designed to cover mountain activities. You can be doing absolutely any sort of climbing up to 6 or 7 000m, i forget which. and it costs $40 a year. and covers multiple trips. I haven't heard of anyone having a hassle getting claims paid. they know what they are dealing with and don't put stupid bloody provisos in it like all the others. given it doesn't look like anyone else is going to cover you in a hurry, it looks pretty bloody good to me. If you want to trust a company with silly provisos to not pick holes in your claim when you have to make one, go for your life.

nmonteith
21-Apr-2012
9:52:11 AM
So if I get a head injury I'm screwed then? I'm just thinking of the months that Lucky Chance spent in a French hospital....

Andrew_M
21-Apr-2012
10:24:50 AM
From "An insurance experience" on the AAC website itself:

"I was aware that the cost of my medical treatment would not be paid by AWS [AAC] as I was eligible to be treated under EHIC [European Health Insurance Card] in a public hospital in Switzerland, as a UK citizen/resident. The same would, of course, apply in all EU countries, and also Liechtenstein and Norway. It should however be noted that as AWS allows only a maximum amount of €7,500 for medical expenses, additional insurance covering mountaineering is highly advisable when climbing in countries not mentioned above [i.e. anywhere in the world for Australians unless there is a reciprocal health care arrangement]."

In a nutshell, if you are insured with AAC, as an Australian you might think you are covered but unless you fit a very defined situation of citizenship/destination then it's essentially worthless.

Singing off from this thread because insurance talk is boring...
Damien Gildea
21-Apr-2012
10:47:33 AM
On 21/04/2012 Wendy wrote:
>
> The only time you will be seriously in trouble is if you are unable to
>be transported and rack up a massive hospital bill somewhere. i imagine
>you can contact their underwriter and get the limits increased for more
>$ in the same way you can get the length increased. So all that discussion
>about ambulance costs are irrelevant. They are going to pay for the helicopter
>to come and drag you out of the mountains.

Well, up to a point, and EU22K can get used up pretty fast with a helo. And it seems that without contacting them specifically we don't know if, or how suitably, limits can be increased.

And also:
"Be advised that this maximum limit might not be sufficient in countries with expensive hospitals or where prolonged expensive treatment might be required."
- and once again their limit will be used up in a few hours in a California hospital.

I agree the policy is pretty good, but it's quite limited once you start climbing outside Europe. It also looks good because it doesn't have much competition, other more comprehensive insurers having quit or changed. I heard recently that Global Rescue have just recently pulled out of providing Antarctic/polar coverage, but I couldn't find anything about it on their site just now. AAC also make the point, repeatedly, that unlike say, GR, they don't organise the rescue, they just pay for it afterwards. This seems fine sitting at home but in lots of places that role is the difference between living and dying and paying bills after the fact is irrelevant.
wilbur
24-Apr-2012
8:02:52 PM
Response so I am covered if anybody else is in the same boat:

We’ve now had a response from the Underwriter who has noted and agreed your climbs up to Grade 32. A limit of Grade 28 was introduced as a way of putting an artificial trigger point beyond which automatic cover could not be given. It does not mean that we cannot insure a climber, just that we want a little bit more information about their experience at the more difficult grades before we do. We are pleased to confirm that we can offer you our Standard Rock Climbing Plan for an additional premium.

Policy still says a helmet is required...

 Page 2 of 3. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 53
There are 53 messages in this topic.

 

Home | Guide | Gallery | Tech Tips | Articles | Reviews | Dictionary | Forum | Links | About | Search
Chockstone Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | Landscape Photos Australia

Please read the full disclaimer before using any information contained on these pages.



Australian Panoramic | Australian Coast | Australian Mountains | Australian Countryside | Australian Waterfalls | Australian Lakes | Australian Cities | Australian Macro | Australian Wildlife
Landscape Photo | Landscape Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Fine Art Photography | Wilderness Photography | Nature Photo | Australian Landscape Photo | Stock Photography Australia | Landscape Photos | Panoramic Photos | Panoramic Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | High Country Mountain Huts | Mothers Day Gifts | Gifts for Mothers Day | Mothers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Mothers Day | Wedding Gift Ideas | Christmas Gift Ideas | Fathers Day Gifts | Gifts for Fathers Day | Fathers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Fathers Day | Landscape Prints | Landscape Poster | Limited Edition Prints | Panoramic Photo | Buy Posters | Poster Prints