USA Swimming is partnering with U.S. Equestrian to bring insurance to swim coaches around the country.
LSC coaches, both full and part time, will have access to this insurance program.
“This has been a long time coming. This is real and it is happening. … We are really fortunate to enter a strategic partnership with U.S. Equestrian. This partnership is allowing us to provide access to our members for first-class health insurance,” USA Swimming Program Manager for the Western Zone Juan Caraveo said in a USA Swimming coaches webinar. “We saw the opportunity to enter into that partnership with them.”
Program enrollment will begin Monday, Oct. 5, through Wednesday, Oct. 14, USA Swimming announced on a coaching webinar. There will be four different enrollment periods each year, beginning with a January, April and July enrollment in 2021.
The plan will include zero deductible health insurance, dental, vision, life insurance, short- and long-term disability and the possibility of home, auto, RV, boat insurance — and will have a dedicated call center. It will comply with the Affordable Care Act.
There will be different levels of coverage available based on the needs of the coaches.
Neither USA Swimming nor U.S. Equestrian will profit from the arrangement. The access fee of $22.50 to U.S. Equestrian will be used for the administrative costs, according to USA Swimming.
Coaches can help fund the insurance for their coaching teams with traditional fundraisers, such as swim-athons, or engaging a community partnership as a sponsor or raise the registration fee for club swimmers, according to USA Swimming.
“This is an easy sell to your team. If you want to provide 75 percent of insurance for the coaches, for $25 or $50 added to your registration fee, coaches will have health insurance,” New Trier Aquatics coach Alexis Keto said.
The goal is to allow coaches to keep their focus with the team instead of looking for other employment that has insurance.
There will be a presentation about the insurance venture on Thursday, Sept. 24, during the USA Swimming virtual convention.
Non-coaches are not eligible for this program yet, but that is something USA Swimming is hoping to change once the program begins.
“We are starting with the coaches first. We have 20,000 coaches and no idea how many people will participate. We want to get a feel and then in the second iteration, make it available to all of our non-athletes,” Caraveo said. “We need to take some small steps first and start with our coaches.”