Insurance claims mount for paramilitary fighters, insurance companies pocket the profits

Wars test limits of law requiring insurance for overseas contractors (6/19/09) -- www.GovernmentExecutive.com:

"Between 2003 and 2007, an average of 11,000 civilian contractors annually filed injury claims with the Labor Department under the Defense Base Act, Fay said. Total payments for health care and benefits related to these claims rose fourteenfold during the first four years of the Iraq war, to more than $170 million annually, he said.

But, profits for insurance carriers also have skyrocked. Subcommittee investigators found that since the wars began insurers have collected more than $1.5 billion in premiums under the Defense Base Act -- all paid by taxpayers -- but paid out only $900 million in benefits.

'The single biggest cause of these failures is the insurance carriers' practice of seeking to profit in every way possible from our fight for national survival instead of becoming part of the forces united against our enemies,' said Timothy Newman, a former DynCorp contractor who lost his leg when an improvised explosive device detonated in Iraq.

Other injured contractors testified that insurance carriers refused to pay for treatment, medication and surgeries despite orders from the Labor Department or judges.

'We demand that we receive the care that was promised us and we deserve,' said Kevin Smith, a former truck driver for the Defense contractor KBR who was severely injured in Baghdad in 2004 when his convoy was ambushed by insurgents and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 'We are not asking for ... [extravagant] bonuses, or lavish parties or even parades. We just want what we are entitled to under the Defense Base Act like medical care, disability pay and retraining if necessary.'"

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