Rising treatment costs and high injury rates pose a problem for globe-trotting athletes
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Last month, Canadian snowboarding star Mark McMorris was involved in a back-country collision that left him with serious injuries: a broken jaw, broken left arm, ruptured spleen, pelvic and rib fractures, and a collapsed left lung. He has a long recovery period ahead of him, but he was fortunate that the accident didn’t occur abroad, where medical bills could quickly become insurmountable.
McMorris’s case is a cautionary tale for all Canadian snow sport athletes, for whom injuries aren’t just possible — they’re inevitable.
“We now mandate that all snow sport athletes carry sport accident insurance,” David Pym, managing director of the Canadian Snowsports Association (CSA), told CBC News. “It's to ensure all of Canada's athletes competing at the International Ski Federation (FIS) level are safeguarded when training and competing out of province and out of country.”
The CSA, which represents the 10 Canadian ski and snowboard federations competing in the FIS league, saw insurance payments of more than $1 million being paid out to injured Canadian athletes from 2014 to 2016. Without the CSA’s requirement for sport accident insurance, those claims would have gone uninsured.
Pym said that the costs aren’t due to an increase in the number of cases; they stem from increasing costs of treatment, particularly for incidents that happen in the US.
Even injuries that are not life-threatening can shock the system. An arm fracture sustained by an athlete in Colorado two years ago resulted in a final claim of $105,000. Like other types of insurance, sport accident insurance gets more expensive the more it’s used — a serious problem in a field where death-defying acts are par for the course.
“I do worry it's not sustainable, that premiums will rise if we continue to exceed the pool,” Freestyle Canada CEO Bruce Robinson told the news outlet. “We saw some of those signs this year with the implementation of a deductible. But it's the cost of doing business. Our priority is protecting our athletes, especially when they are traveling and competing out of their home province and outside of Canada.”
Despite its international coverage, the mandated insurance still offers limited protection. Sport accident insurance only covers risks that athletes face in their official sport during supervised training sessions and competitions. In other words, unless they carry private insurance of their own, snowsport athletes will not be covered for activities not sanctioned by the team they’re part of.
Seeking thrills and adrenalin-fuelled highs may be part of the snowsport athletes’ DNA, but just like everyone, they need to fully understand their insurance policies before taking on any risks.
Related stories:
Langley man survives major accident in Thailand, but faces huge medical bill
Lack of regulation creating a ‘Wild West’ of concussion clinics
McMorris’s case is a cautionary tale for all Canadian snow sport athletes, for whom injuries aren’t just possible — they’re inevitable.
“We now mandate that all snow sport athletes carry sport accident insurance,” David Pym, managing director of the Canadian Snowsports Association (CSA), told CBC News. “It's to ensure all of Canada's athletes competing at the International Ski Federation (FIS) level are safeguarded when training and competing out of province and out of country.”
The CSA, which represents the 10 Canadian ski and snowboard federations competing in the FIS league, saw insurance payments of more than $1 million being paid out to injured Canadian athletes from 2014 to 2016. Without the CSA’s requirement for sport accident insurance, those claims would have gone uninsured.
Pym said that the costs aren’t due to an increase in the number of cases; they stem from increasing costs of treatment, particularly for incidents that happen in the US.
Even injuries that are not life-threatening can shock the system. An arm fracture sustained by an athlete in Colorado two years ago resulted in a final claim of $105,000. Like other types of insurance, sport accident insurance gets more expensive the more it’s used — a serious problem in a field where death-defying acts are par for the course.
“I do worry it's not sustainable, that premiums will rise if we continue to exceed the pool,” Freestyle Canada CEO Bruce Robinson told the news outlet. “We saw some of those signs this year with the implementation of a deductible. But it's the cost of doing business. Our priority is protecting our athletes, especially when they are traveling and competing out of their home province and outside of Canada.”
Despite its international coverage, the mandated insurance still offers limited protection. Sport accident insurance only covers risks that athletes face in their official sport during supervised training sessions and competitions. In other words, unless they carry private insurance of their own, snowsport athletes will not be covered for activities not sanctioned by the team they’re part of.
Seeking thrills and adrenalin-fuelled highs may be part of the snowsport athletes’ DNA, but just like everyone, they need to fully understand their insurance policies before taking on any risks.
Related stories:
Langley man survives major accident in Thailand, but faces huge medical bill
Lack of regulation creating a ‘Wild West’ of concussion clinics
