We’ve heard over and over again from our customers how hard it is to understand health insurance. So earlier this year, we launched an accident calculator on our site. After we wrote a three-part series on it, we realized there had to be a faster and easier way to explain how your health insurance works after you have an accident. We don’t just care about protecting your adventures, we care about helping you be informed and prepared. So, even though we don’t offer health insurance, we’ve created a tool to help you understand how yours will work should your hand slip on your climb or should you snag a root on the trail.
Disclaimer: Our accident calculator isn’t perfect. Trust us, we tried SUPER hard.
Unfortunately, we ran into several of the things our customers have run into. Every insurance plan is different, the agreements between insurance carriers and hospitals aren’t publically available, and the cost of care varies from state to state.
What we were able to create is a great rough-estimate of what you could owe for some pretty common injuries. So how does it work?
To get started, you enter information that applies to you: like your personal health insurance deductible and your coinsurance responsibility. Then you select an injury. The cost of care for the injuries we found is based on the national averages for those injuries. At the end, we show you what you could be on the line for if you had that injury. While it doesn’t contemplate agreements that might exist between your insurance carrier and your care provider, it does give you a decent idea of what an accident could cost you.
On the same screen as your estimated out-of-pocket responsibility, we also show you the benefits that Buddy may have paid you for your accident (depending on the treatment you received). It makes it easy for you to see where we fit in your personal equation.
When you have an accident, understanding what your medical expenses will be is just part of the battle. You also have to consider the other expenses you can incur: Damaged gear, changes to travel plans, and additional fees for child or pet care are just a few of the costs you can encounter while recovering from an injury. To read more about possible financial gaps you could have after an accident, check out our three-part series on finding your gap areas. Ready to jump right in? Click get started below.
