Insurance: General Info

Racers are you reading this???

Insurance- I continue to hear anecdotal stories of racers who may be racing without health insurance coverage or health coverage for boat racing. Some insurance plans are continuing to exclude certain activities(skateboarding, bungee jumping, etc......) and there have been instances where boat racing has been excluded. Also, certain drivers may not have any health/accident insurance. Should we be considering showing our insurance card at registration.....?

From Bob Wartinger's Report

Ron,
While this is a great idea and would reduce the cost of an APBA race by more likely 1/2, there are other issues that might not make this the best idea.

First, you are right, some insurance carriers will exclude dangerous activities, and anything with the word racing on the end is considered dangerous. That and the only true proof of insurance is a Certificate of Insurance from your insurance company, not the card (since cards can be faked rather easily - mine is just a piece of paper). And anyone who asks their company to provide one so they can go boat racing should be ready for 50 questions or more. And once you ask for one, any claim that you might have gotten by them before for things that happen at the racesite will now all be denied.

Insurance is a major expense but one that is more than worth it. I had a wreck a couple years ago (and yes, my insurance company thinks it was just a boating accident) that required a trip in the meatwagon, Xrays, stitches, 2nd opinions and a trip to the orthapedic surgeon. While my insurance co took care of most (and I have good Teacher Insurance, through my wife), there was still a big chunk that was left over. APBA (either K&K or ASI - can't remember which) took care of everything and even helped straighten out a screwup with my insurance co. Racing without personal and APBA insurance is putting your home, cars, future, etc at risk.

There are several thing racers could do to reduce the risk/ and or reduce the cost of putting on races. Every racer could purchase a secondary insurance policy, like AFLAC for racing or something, and thus reduce the expense APBA would need to charge for sanctions and the amount the clubs would have to charge for entries. This would keep racing away from our employers but also reduce the exposure APBA would need. But if every racer bought this insurance (and I don't even know if it exists or how much it is), would the cost of sanctions and entries go down? Would this savings get past back to the racers or would each club, race site, etc take a little cut of those savings to generate funds.

Just soem thoughts