The bailed-out insurance giant AIG has come under intense criticism for handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to top executives and billions in payments to other financial firms, all while receiving taxpayer aid. But new disclosures on its handling of insurance claims add a fresh angle to the ongoing scrutiny of AIG. According to the investigative website ProPublica, AIG and other top insurance companies have routinely denied medical benefits to civilian contractors wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many workers have returned home to face long, grinding battles for basic medical care, artificial limbs and psychological counseling.
More than 1,400 contractors have been killed, another 31,000 wounded, in Iraq and Afghanistan. AIG has been the leading profiteer from providing their medical insurance.
There are about 214,000 contractors in Iraq right now, which of course means there’s more contractors on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are actual uniformed personnel. So, part of our story was, we wanted to look at the hidden side of the casualties in this story, which have been the contractors. You’ve had 1,400 of the contractors have been killed, and 31,000 have reported injuries.
What we found is that AIG, which is the insurance giant, provides insurance coverage—it’s essentially a type of workers’ compensation coverage—to about 90 percent of the individuals who have been wounded or killed in Iraq. And one thing I think that your listeners should know, Amy, is that this is not private insurance. This is an insurance which taxpayers purchase as part of the federal contracting process, that we chose to go over there with using private contractors. And so, taxpayers financed and bought private workers’ compensation insurance from AIG and many other companies. And so, that, to me, was one of the big issues.
And then, when you turn around and look at how much money they have received in premiums and how often they file a protest in these claims, you’ll see a distinctive pattern, where about 43 percent, 44 percent of the claims for serious injuries are disputed. Even in the case of a psychological injury, you’ll see 60 percent of those cases are disputed.
So you have a population here of civilians, who were not soldiers—they were civilians—but they face many of the same risks as soldiers. They were exposed to many of the same battles and bloodshed as soldiers were. And so, they’re coming home to a system which is not providing them care that the taxpayers have already paid for. And that was kind of the focus of the story.
US taxpayers pay for this actually in several different ways. They pay for the insurance itself. So, both Kevin in Abilene and John in Oklahoma, when they went over to Iraq, they were promised by the US government, “You’re going to be covered by this workers’ compensation insurance, which taxpayers paid for.”
Once they return home, if they are injured in the war in a combat activity, as both John and Kevin were, eventually the US government is going to pay back the insurance companies for the cost of care for these guys, and then they will add another 15 percent fee on top of that to pay the carriers like what they call a handling fee or a processing fee.
So, on both sides, both in the terms of the premiums the taxpayers have paid and the care for these guys, Americans are eventually going to pay for that. In the meantime, the carriers—these guys are trapped in this system that the carriers basically control.
KBR is their employer. And as their employer, they purchase the insurance. So KBR could, in theory, be pushing its insurance company to move more quickly and rapidly to treat these individuals. You haven’t seen a lot of instances of that, where KBR has stepped up and really pushed for the insurance carriers to provide appropriate medical treatment and counseling for these guys.
And you look at these guys, I mean, it’s not a mistake that they’re out in Oklahoma and Texas. A lot of these guys were blue-collar folks, former military often, and sort of the Midwestern states, in Arkansas and Oklahoma and Texas, who—they weren’t mercenaries. They were folks who are going over to Iraq to drive trucks and fix meals and deliver mail, translate for soldiers. And they weren’t making the big bucks that these private military contractors were. They were making a good living for the first time in their life, to try to save up for paying off a mortgage or pay off a kid’s college fund.
So, to the extent that they come back and they don’t get the benefits that they were promised, that we paid for, that again is something that is in the hands of the federal government to make sure that the carriers pay out these funds. And you haven’t seen a very good job of that system being policed.
John:
I was outraged, like I guess most all Americans were. This morning, I listened to the news and heard a story about a Joseph Cassano and billions of dollars in this situation. I guess this is something upcoming. But, oh, you’re horrified at this.
And I know we all—you know, we’ve all gave something, and we’re just not getting back what we put into this. And then you see this money just being just thrown away, and these people have no care in the world at all. So it’s very saddening to realize that we are Americans, and they are, too, and they don’t care. No one cares. And, you know, there’s nothing you can say to these people that would make them feel what you’re going through.
I know Kevin and myself and so many others, we have suffered unbelievably. And a lot of us, you know, we can’t wait. And it’s just a waiting game. And they just—they push you along.
And there’s—you know, with the insurance, KBR—KBR stays out of it. They don’t have much to do with anything. But with this insurance and your adjusters that you go through, just there’s no feeling. And it’s just really sad. And it’s really hard to put words on this, because most people don’t feel. And they look at the money part of this situation. They say, “Well, you know, these people went to Iraq to get rich.” Well, and, you know, in some cases, that might be very true. But I quit a job. I was making just as much money as I made there in Iraq. So, it was not the money that drew me. And, you know, but to see this just being wasted like this is just—it’s pure appalling.
Discussion:
John Woodson, former KBR worker who lost his left leg and sight in his left eye after his convoy was ambushed in Iraq. He returned home to have most of his medical claims challenged by his insurer, AIG. He lives in Poteau, Oklahoma.
T. Christian Miller, a reporter for the ProPublica investigative news website, he wrote the investigative news series “Forgotten Warriors” about neglected civilian contractors. He is also author of the book Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq. He joins us from Washington, DC.
Kevin Smith Idol, a former contractor for KBR, his left leg was shattered in an April 2004 attack in Iraq. He’s also faced a protracted legal battle with AIG over his medical benefits.
– from democracynow.org