In reviewing health insurance documents as I try to get my life together, I noticed that my health insurance plan issued in NY state has an aviation exemption:
> No coverage is available under this Certificate for the following:
> A. Aviation. We do not Cover services arising out of aviation, other than as a fare-paying passenger on a scheduled or charter flight operated by a scheduled airline.
This exemption comes straight from NY state law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations ... YCRR-52.16 and the state helpfully provides a template of exclusions that has seemingly been copy and pasted into my policy: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/apps-and-licensi ... sions-2026.
So I went and looked at my aircraft policy through USAIG. There's $5000 for medical payments but that's about it. The language in my policy is confusing, and I thought that the "bodily injury" coverage in the policy may apply to me as the pilot and policyholder, but my insurance broker says this is not the case. I wasn't able to get anyone who knows what they're talking about on the phone from USAIG.
This seems to be a major gap in coverage if the aircraft policy indeed does not cover bodily injury to crew if they are the policyholder. My insurance broker suggested getting a standalone health insurance policy, but I do not think that is possible. A marketplace plan would be subject to the same NY law above and include the same exclusions. I guess I would have to get a non-NY plan issued to my LLC?
This seems a bit absurd and I can't imagine this is actually the case. But maybe it is? Has anyone else run into this?
I also tried calling my health insurance but they were not helpful. I found a thread on Pilots Of America but there were no real answers there either: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/communi ... nt.128804/.
Health insurance gap as owner / pilot (NY specific?)
Moderators: Rick, Lance Murray