http://www.alternet.org/story/19558/

Fleecing America's Soldiers

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet.

August 16, 2004.


It's bad enough that our young men and women are thrust into a war of
lies in Iraq, but it's a moral abomination that insurance gougers are
allowed to prey on them at home.

It's been said that you don't know what hell is until you've had an
insurance salesman in your living room, prattling on eternally about
term life annuities.

But I've recently learned about a deeper level of hell reserved for
insurance company hucksters who -- get this -- are ripping off
America's young soldiers who are headed into the dread of the Iraqi
war.

Companies such as American Amicable Life Insurance have weaseled their
way to our basic-training bases where they pose as semi-official
military agents.

Then gather boot-camp grunts into so-called classes where the
unscrupulous agents proceed to pick the pockets of underpaid soldiers.

The fleecing is presented by the insurance companies and the military
as a compulsory "briefing" on personal finances.

With superior officers in the room, the agents talk of "investments"
and walk the unsuspecting troops through pages of paperwork, getting
them to sign blind authorizations to deduct money from their meager
monthly paychecks.

The briefings don't mention that the 19- and 20-year-old soldiers are
not really buying investments, but life insurance.

Nor is it pointed out that they will pay far more in costly premiums
than they'll ever draw out.

Also, the insurance is unnecessary, since nearly every soldier is
covered by a low-cost military policy that pays 10-times what these
private scams do.

It's bad enough that our young men and women are thrust into a war of
lies in Iraq, but it's a moral abomination that insurance gougers are
allowed to prey on them at home.

Yet, not only does the Pentagon turn a blind eye to this sleazy scam,
but so does congress -- the lobbying front for the companies, the
American Council of Life Insurers, has used its campaign donations to
get lawmakers to block any effort to stop the corporate thievery.

These companies, lobbyists, congress critters, and military officials
are participating in crass war profiteering -- and they deserve a
special place in hell.

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Mornin' coffee with Jim Hightower.

Harry