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Friday, July 30, 2010

When soldiers' deaths benefit companies, families continue to lose

As the combat in Afghanistan heats up and draws down in Iraq, we can still argue all we want about the necessity to have troops in either country, but the reality is, we ignore the other issues as we make the claims to support them and their families.

For years as they suffered because of the backlog of claims in the VA, most people in this country didn't have a clue. As the suicides were ever increasing, again, most people didn't have a clue. What it took to bring attention to what we so easily ignore, were the families involved to speak out and fight for what they should have never been forced to fight for. Had they not spoken out, we would blissfully sleep at night knowing they were doing their jobs serving and defending this country and assuming all was well with them too.

So Secretary of Defense Bill Gates attends yet another military funeral as another milestone is reached in Afghanistan. But too often the family's pain is just starting.


Grim milestone as three U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 30, 2010 6:52 a.m. EDT




Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday consoles the family of Army Pfc. David T. Miller, who was killed in Afghanistan.



STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Deaths bring July tally to 63, the highest monthly toll for U.S. forces in the 9-year war
Milestone comes amid concern over Washington's strategy in the Afghan war
A total of 85 international service members, including Americans, have died this month

(CNN) -- Three U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan, making July the deadliest month for American forces since the war started nine years ago.

The three died Thursday after an improvised explosive device attack, the International Security Assistance Force said.

Their deaths bring the July tally to 63. A total of 85 international service members, including Americans, have died this month.

Before this month, June was the deadliest month for Americans and coalition forces. A total of 103 international soldiers died last month -- including 60 Americans. The totals are based on reports compiled by CNN.

The grim milestone comes amid concern at home over Washington's strategy in the Afghanistan war.
read more here
Grim milestone as three U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan


We could very well settle for that knowing the fallen soldiers receive a military funeral, but then the back story would show a totally different story when we read about the problems at Arlington National Cemetery topped off with the recent news of families left behind being ripped off by insurance companies that are supposed to be paying the families instead of themselves first.


Dead soldier's family sues insurer
Friday, July 30, 2010
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - A Belchertown family that has advocated for soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder since their son committed suicide in 2004 is among the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

Kevin and Joyce Lucey received a $250,000 life insurance payment following the death of their son, Jeffrey, an Army corporal who hanged himself in their home shortly after returning from active duty in Iraq.

The class-action suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Springfield by Conway lawyer Cristobal Bonifaz alleges that the Luceys and other beneficiaries of life insurance policies on members of the military were short-changed by Prudential, which was earning 5.7 percent interest on the benefits while paying 1 percent interest.

According to Bonifaz' calculation, Prudential has kept more than $100 million that should have been paid to the families of soldiers. The suit includes as plaintiffs all beneficiaries dating back six years.

Kevin Lucey said Thursday that he and his wife received a kind of checkbook from Prudential weeks after their son's suicide that gave them access to an account worth $250,000, the amount of the policy. The Luceys spent about $53,000 of that money, but took out the remaining $197,000 last year after talking to a financial adviser and invested it so it would have a higher yield.

Lucey said he is outraged that Prudential is making a profit on his son's life insurance policy.

Dead soldiers family sues insurer



The Lucey family lost their son because he wasn't taken care of and committed suicide. These people are heroes! They could have just grieved in the privacy of their own home, let the death of their son remain a private matter, but they knew other families were suffering and something had to be done to end the silence.

I remember when their son's story first came out.


Thursday, July 26, 2007

Jeffery Lucey's parents sue government over suicide, bravo!
Iraq war veteran's parents sue U.S. after suicide
Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:41PM EDT
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) - The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide sued the U.S. government on Thursday for negligence, charging their son hanged himself after the government ignored his depression.The suit accuses the federal government of not helping 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey, who committed suicide in his parents' Massachusetts basement less than a year after returning home from fighting during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson was also named in the suit.



And they won!
Marine Reserve Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey's family wins law suit
Family of Iraq vet gets settlement after his suicide

U.S. loses wrongful death suit

By Jeff Schogol,
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 16, 2009
ARLINGTON, Va. — Marine Reserve Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey hanged himself on June 22, 2004, about three weeks after being released as an inpatient from the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass.His parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming the VA initially refused to treat him for post-traumatic stress disorder because they required him to be sober first.Now they will receive $350,000 under a settlement with the U.S. government that was announced Thursday by Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group to which they both belong."The Government killed my son," Lucey’s father, Kevin, said in Thursday’s news release. "It sent him into an illegal and reckless war and then, when he returned home, it denied him the basic health care he needed."
click link for more of this


Not only did they bring honor to the life of their son, they managed to bring attention to the suffering of hundreds of other families so that their ranks would not grow without anyone noticing.

Now they are fighting another public battle for the sake of other families. No longer can insurance companies just do what they want without anyone even trying to stop them. Today the news is flooding in from other families and it will go on for a while as the media reports on it. Just as with suicides happening in private lives, it took someone coming forward to talk about it so that others stop suffering. Ending the silence brought attention to PTSD. It brought attention to suicides. Things changed because people were more concerned about others going through the same thing than they were about their privacy. Things only change when someone has the courage to speak out.

Local veterans upset over life insurance policy
Elise Preston
NewsChannel 10

AMARILLO---A national out cry of disgust rises as people learn Prudential life insurance makes money off of dead veterans benefits. Prudential is the sole provider of life insurance for active duty and recently retired service members.

They provide what's called a retained asset account. When active duty or recently retired service members die, they're beneficiaries don't receive a lump sum. Instead, they receive the funds through a checking account. The account also allows the beneficiaries to earn interest on the policy.
read more of this here

Local veterans upset over life insurance policy




NY subpoenas MetLife, Pru on soldier death benefits

By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK
Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:26pm EDT

(Reuters) - New York's attorney general has subpoenaed MetLife Inc and Prudential Financial Inc as part of a probe into whether life insurers are defrauding families of deceased military personnel by siphoning off millions of dollars of death benefits for themselves.

"It is shocking and plain wrong for these multinational life insurance companies to pocket hundreds of millions in profits that really belong to those who have lost family members and have already suffered immensely," the attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, said in a statement.

Cuomo announced the subpoenas of the largest U.S. life insurers on Thursday, one day after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in a published report that it had begun its own investigation into the issue.
read the rest of this here
NY subpoenas MetLife, Pru on soldier death benefits

But this is not the worst of it or the end of it. This is what they used to excuse what they were doing,,,,

-- We do not think it makes sense to force people to make decisions in a difficult and complex financial environment during a very emotional time in their lives.

This was from Prudential's press release posted on MarketWatch
Prudential addresses concerns with the Department of Veterans Affairs

How dare they? Do they do this on all life insurance policies? Do they try to "save people the trouble" of having to decide what to do with the insurance checks? Who the hell told them they had any right to decide what people did with the money?


These families had to spend day in and day out wondering if their warrior would spend their last day on this earth, then ended up with the doorbell proclaiming their worst fears had come true. They have to wait for the body to return home covered by a flag on top of a casket, then prepare for a funeral. To have anyone holding back paying out on an insurance claim for any reason is unacceptable and appalling! There is no excuse for this at all!

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