Albuquerque Soccer League, through its membership in New Mexico State Soccer Association and the United States Adult Soccer Association, obtains liability insurance coverage that we are required to carry in order to use city and school fields as well as the fields at the soccer complex at Santa Ana. There are a lot of other good reasons that we won’t include here.
Adult recreational soccer coverage is a very thin market. Not a lot of companies elect to underwrite such coverage. One of the reasons is that uninsured adult soccer players traditionally sued under the general liability policy when they were injured in order to recover their medical expenses. Therefore, those who do underwrite the coverage for the general liability coverage wised up and required a certain degree of accident insurance coverage to hold the lawsuits under the general liability policy to an acceptable level that would give them a chance to meet their target earnings ratios. Therefore, each of you pays $10 per year, which costs about $8 for your accident insurance coverage and $2 for your general liability coverage. That becomes effective as soon as we process your registration.
For purposes of the accident coverage policy, you’re covered for both practice and games. Summer play is from the date you register through our last scheduled game. That is August 2, not counting makeup games.
For fall soccer, it’s from the date the City sanctions practice, usually two weeks before the first game, until the last scheduled league game. The spring season operates under the same time frame.
The coverage is secondary. That means if you have insurance coverage at work, that applies first. This insurance takes over after the benefits from your primary insurance have been exhausted. If you have no insurance, this coverage becomes your primary coverage.
The limitation per incident is $5,000 and has specific limitations, as well as a $400 deductible. This isn’t going to cover all of your expenses. It’s purposes is to hold down liability claims. It costs $8 a year, which is substantially less than what your employer pays to insure you. If you are uninsured, you need to consider whether you can afford the risk of an injury in soccer that requires surgery and missing work.
You must file your claim within 90 days of the injury. It costs absolutely nothing to file a claim. We would recommend you file the claim if you have an injury adequately serious to require a visit to the doctor or hospital. Your coverage may not pay for a knee brace or you may accumulate co-payments under the primary coverage that could be covered.
You do not get a check from ASL as soon as you bring in your claim form. We process the form, verify you are registered and that the accident occurred in a sanctioned event, like a league game. We then turn it over the claims processing operation and they issue checks.
We’ve had several people who provided inaccurate addresses to the hospital and then not bothered to come in and file a claim. We then get lots of mail from the hospital and physician. We put those in a nice file, write them a letter, and tell them you apparently have other coverage, as you haven’t elected to seek our assistance. If you don’t file a claim, no one gets paid.
Claim forms can be obtained by contacting the office at 346-0831 or by e-mailing us. Just leave a name and address and Ann will send the form out the same day. When the form comes back completed and we send it to the insurance company. We copy you on the transmittal letter to the insurance company so you are sure that your claim was filed.
One item to be aware of. Generally, this coverage is for doctor and hospital type treatment. However, it also provides for some coverage for dental-type injuries. Therefore, if you discover you’ve accidentally left a couple of teeth in someone’s skull, this will provide up to $ 500 of coverage for that treatment. Unfortunately, that type of dental treatment is somewhat pricey, but this provides some assistance.
Please note this is an accident policy. It is not a disability policy. It is not going to pay you anything if you miss work. If you cannot afford to miss work, that kind of coverage is available from most insurance agents. Relative to the price of playing in ASL, it’s somewhat expensive and we don’t offer it. We tried working something out in that area once and got no takers. If your health care provider has questions about the coverage or needs verification of your eligibility, they can contact ASL.
