Stop Profiting from Our War Dead

The VA's decision to let Prudential withhold lump-sum benefit payments to veterans' families is an outrage. What's less clear is how they can undo the damage.

Cindy Lohman’s son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.

Get this - the government insurance plan: they recruit you, train you, insure you, ship you around the world and when you get your head blown off, then they get that last inch of blood out of the stone by profiteering off of the blood money:

Bloomberg News reports:

Veterans Agency Made Secret Deal Over Benefits

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.

Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts, which allow the company to withhold lump-sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.

OOOPS! Oh H-E-E-E-Y-Y-Y-!-!-! We're SORRY . . . we conveniently FORGOT TO TELL YOU we're making millions in interest and investments off the money that belongs to your survivors!

Bloomberg's report adds:

It’s very clear they violated the original terms of the contract,” says [Brendan] Bridgeland [an insurance lawyer], who is retained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to represent consumers. “Every veteran I’ve spoken with is appalled at the brazen war profiteering by Prudential,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

The U.S. government mothballs ships and tanks, assorted small arms weaponry, equipment, even rucksacks and web gear, for cannibalization or sale to foreign militaries. Now we see a ghoulish angle on this kind of pragmatism: span style="font-weight: bold;"> <

span style="font-weight: bold;">Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit<

The 'checkbook' system cheats the families of those who die, says Jeffrey Stempel, an insurance law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

'It’s institutionalized bad faith,' he says. 'In my view, this is a scheme to defraud by inducing the policyholder’s beneficiary to let the life insurance company retain assets they’re not entitled to. It’s turning death claims into a profit center.'

A sample "check" for a Prudential retained asset account. Photographer: David Evans/Bloomberg

This thing stinks. This is absolutely disgraceful. In my view, this is only a few steps away from what the Nazis did: harvesting gold teeth, eyeglasses, wristwatches, jewelry, furs, clothing and shoes from gassed concentration camp inmates - their own citizenry. What's even more mind-boggling is how on Earth are they going to sort this thing out?

Think about it; there's the profits themselves to be divvy'd and distributed to fallen soldiers' families. Then there's the amounts that insurance company executives and managers realized in bonuses, and then there's dividends to the stockholders; a significant percentage of these payouts should rightfully go to the survivors. But how to possibly calculate these amounts? Anybody out there still think the government is going to TAKE CARE OF YOU? Hmmm? HHHMMMMMMMMM ? ? ?

"If you expect the Government to take care of you, you're gonna get what the American Indian got." - Sergeant Major Loclomancil, US Army Special Forces and full-blooded Payute.