It has been decades since the amount of life insurance was set for veterans. It may have been set during WW2, even then the military was paying 10,000 in life insurance if a member of the military was killed on active duty.
During the 1950’s General Omar Bradley was in charge of the Veterans Administration and he had a commission that changed a lot of the rules for veterans, I do not know if they changed the life inusrance rules or amounts during that commission or not, all of those rules were written before I even joined the Army in 1973.
Today if a veteran becomes disabled they can get a 10,000 dollar life insurance policy within two years of becoming disabled, if the veterans is totally disabled they waive the fees and they give the veterans the 10,000 life insurance free (which I am grateful for) in addition the veteran can buy a secondary policy up to 20,000 dollars. I am sure back during WW2 and Korea this was a large amount of money, even during Vietnam it was okay but not a great sum of money.
A few years ago Congress changed the rules for active duty members and raised their life insurance up to 400,000 dollars, which is a decent amount of money for the family, no it does not replace the lostfamily member, but it will help the surviving family members from losing their home, or vehicles, etc. It is an acceptable amount to help the family make the transition. But nothing was done then to help this nations veterans.
There is now a bill making it’s way thru Congress, it will be voted on in the VA Committee this week
Title: To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements in the service disabled veterans’ insurance program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sponsor: Rep Donnelly, Joe [IN-2] (introduced 6/4/2009) Cosponsors (10)
Latest Major Action: 6/24/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Subcommittee Hearings Held.
Jump to: Summary, Major Actions, All Actions, Titles, Cosponsors, Committees, Related Bill Details, Amendments
Disabled Veterans Life Insurance Enhancement Act – Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide a two-year period, beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, to allow a person who was eligible for service disabled veterans life insurance but did not apply within the required two-year period after their disability was determined to apply for such insurance.
Increases from: (1) $10,000 to $100,000 the maximum authorized amount of U.S. government or National Service life insurance; and (2) $20,000 to $50,000 the maximum authorized amount of supplemental insurance for totally disabled veterans.
***NONE***
6/4/2009: Referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. 6/5/2009: Referred to the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. 6/24/2009: Subcommittee Hearings Held.
This is the list of Sponsor and Co-Sponsors:
H.R.2713
Title: To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements in the service disabled veterans’ insurance program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sponsor: Rep Donnelly, Joe [IN-2] (introduced 6/4/2009) Cosponsors (10)
Latest Major Action: 6/24/2009 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Subcommittee Hearings Held.
COSPONSORS(10), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)
| Rep Arcuri, Michael A. [NY-24] – 6/4/2009 | Rep Bilirakis, Gus M. [FL-9] – 6/4/2009 |
| Rep Boozman, John [AR-3] – 6/4/2009 | Rep Ellsworth, Brad [IN-8] – 6/4/2009 |
| Rep Hall, John J. [NY-19] – 6/4/2009 | Rep Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie [SD] – 6/4/2009 |
| Rep Hill, Baron P. [IN-9] – 6/4/2009 | Rep Souder, Mark E. [IN-3] – 6/4/2009 |
| Rep Space, Zachary T. [OH-18] – 6/4/2009 | Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6] – 6/4/2009 |
This legislation is badly needed to bring this nations veterans into the 21st century and a good start. I would also like to see the Congress addnew legislation to allow disabled veterans purchase mortgage insurance. The rules as they are written now allow only disabled veterans who qualify for the house allowance of 50,000 dollars can obtain mortgage insurance up to 90,000 dollars.
This amount needs to be increased to what homes actually cost in the 21st century, 250,000 or maybe even 350,000, there are some places in this nation where a family would have a hard time finding a home less than 350,000 dollars.
The privilige of buying mortgage insurance also needs to be opened up to ALL 100% disabled veterans, or veterans that have service connected medical problems that prevent them from buying mortgage insurance thru commercial companies. There are many reasons that disabled veterans can NOT buy life and mortgage insurance, PTSD, heart disease, hypertension, pulmonary disorders, etc, we are not aksing anyone to give us this, we are willing to pay for it like average Americans, the problem is right now we can’t buy it at all from anyone, not a private company, nor the government thru the Veterans Administration or anywhere else for that matter.
It is time to correct this injustice and make disabled veterans whole.
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