FAA Physical covered by health insurance?

"abripl" wrote in message
oups.com...
Does anybody have definite word if FAA physicals (private pilot, not
commercial) are or should be covered by health insurance?

It simply depends on your insurance and who you can find to do the exam.

If you have a policy that covers a regular medical exam, AND you have an AME
who is covered under that policy, then your exam can be covered.

One downside is that many policies require that the regular exam be given by
your "primary care" physician, and there are good reasons for not using your
primary care doctor for the FAA exam.

Conversely, if you're covered under an HMO or something like that, you may
find it difficult to find an AME who would be covered under that policy.

Of course, as Robert points out, the FAA medical exam isn't the same as what
you might get for an annual checkup. One might not want to replace their
free thorough exam with an FAA medical exam. Many people don't get annual
exams anyway though, so the FAA exam is still more of a checkup than they'd
get otherwise.

Pete

As you point out too, there may be a bit of conflict of interest
between an AME who is looking out for the FAA and your primary Dr who
is looking out for you. Its kind of like talking to the NTSB attorney
without your own attorney.

Robert M. Gary wrote:

Its kind of like talking to the NTSB attorney
without your own attorney.

More like using an NTSB attorney as your own attorney.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.