Player injury scheme

patmac

The Players Injury Scheme(from the GAA website):
"The GAA has operated an injury scheme in one way or another since 1929. Through a process of constant review and frequent improvement the Association continues to exercise concern for the welfare of members involved in our national games in various capacities.


The GAA Injury Scheme
The mandatory scheme provides benefit to members playing the national games of Hurling, Gaelic Football, Handball and Rounders whose clubs are registered with the scheme and also to accredited club personnel performing designated duties in connection with the activities of Clubs registered in the Scheme.

The Injury Scheme is funded entirely from Club and GAA funds with no outside (e.g. insurance) involvement. There is no legal obligation on the GAA to provide such a Scheme. Risk is an inherent factor in sport, as in life. When members voluntarily take part in Club Activities, they accept the risks that such participation may bring. Legal representation is not required and there is strictly no Legal Expenses Cover amongst the benefits provided.

The Injury Scheme does not seek to compensate fully for injury but to supplement other Schemes such as Personal Accident or Health Insurance.

Ultimately, the responsibility to ensure that adequate cover is in place lies with the individual member, commensurate with his/her specific needs."


Hi folks at a meeting last night it came to my attention that the Players Injury Scheme has remained capped at €5000 for the last 5 years this despite the fact that Health costs have increased by 9% per annum since. For example a player has a cruciate ligament operation cost 5 years ago was less than €5000 now that cost is over €8000 which means someone has to pay the difference.
Some questions:
Should all players have to take out personal insurance to cover these eventualities as stated above or do they think the club membership should cover it? Are all players aware of this.

Why, when the GAA is awash with money can players still not get adequate cover for their medical bills.

Now I need help in verifying the facts on the Personal Injury Scheme as I said it was mentioned at a meeting last night, and I haven't a clue about how the whole system works but would appreciate any feedback anyone has to offer as I feel it is an important issue.

Rogueish

HI There,

I work with injured club and county GAA players for the last few years and my understanding is that that particular injury scheme (where the player had to pay €20 per year separate to their club membership) was abandoned a few years ago due to poor uptake.

Currently 'all' GAA clubs pay insurance which is held by the Coyle Hamilton insurance agency. The cutoff point I'm not sure about but I have never heard of an individual having to pay the excess. Probably the club takes up the excess.

As far as private insurance is concerned many GAA players have relied on the GAA insurance scheme to look after them if they are injured (wrongly assuming that the only time they will ever be injured and out of work is due to the GAA). Private health insurance is a positive asset on an individual basis but realistically you cannot expect players to it just because the GAA insurance doesn't cover all costs.

Plus you will be left with the private and GAA insurance company wrangling over who is going to cover what, while the player is out of work waiting for an operation....

Another thing is that MANY GAA clubs do not claim all they are due in physio and doctor bills from the insurance agency. Last year out of 10 GAA clubs of county and club origin on our books only one was proactive in getting the paperwork to us to fill out so that they could claim some of the costs back. This is because nobody quite understands the claims procedures and nobody quite wants the hassle of taking on that particular job.

God knows there during the summer it was announced that the premium to the clubs was increasing all across the board underage senior junior and intermediate teams.

patmac

Rogueish wrote: »

HI There,

Currently 'all' GAA clubs pay insurance which is held by the Coyle Hamilton insurance agency. The cutoff point I'm not sure about but I have never heard of an individual having to pay the excess. Probably the club takes up the excess.

Thanks for the reply, has anyone any ideas is there a cutoff and do clubs take up the excess? It's such a grey area and as you say most clubs are in the dark regarding this matter. But if a club pays it's insurance surely this must cover all player's injury costs without the club or player being out of pocket.

Rogueish

Your best bet is to either contact Coyle Hamilton yourself or your club secretary should have a copy of the insurance policy which would state the terms and conditions.