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This information has been taken from many sites. Please read. I have also listed most sites on the bottom of the page so you may look and help us get the word out.
The Los Angeles Times, in conjunction with ABC News and ProPublica, reported on Friday, April 17, 2009, that the health insurance claims of civilian contractors who participated in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have been denied with unsettling frequency.
Per the Defense Base Act (DBA), 42 U.S.C. 1651-1654, contractors and subcontractors are required to purchase workers’ compensation insurance for employees working overseas. The insurance purchased must cover medical care and disability payments for workers injured in the performance of job duties; it must also provide death benefits for the families of employees killed on the job. The costs of insurance premiums paid by the contracting firms are then built into the price of the contract between the contractor and the Federal Government.
The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP), Division
of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation, administers the Defense Base Act, ensuring
that workers’ compensation benefits are provided for covered employees promptly and correctly.
It is the responsibility of the Department of Labor to take care of this, and they have not.
Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter (text below) to Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chairman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) requesting a hearing to examine a recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and ProPublica. According to the investigation, AIG and other insurance companies have been unnecessarily denying and prolonging serious health insurance claims of civilian contractors who were injured or killed while participating in U.S. combat activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Base Act Workmans Compensation insurance coverage is required for all civilian contract employees working overseas under US Government contracts. This happens to include the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.
This DBA insurance coverage is “cost reimbursable” to the Contractor Company, meaning you the taxpayer are paying for the coverage. When an employee is killed or injured in a War Zone the insurance company is then reimbursed all of it’s expenses plus an administrative fee by the taxpayer under the War Hazards Act. The expenses include the legal fees that the insurance pays it’s expensive DBA Defense Attorneys to deny the injured contractor employee benefits.
We need to stand together to get the word out that 1000's are being left out in the cold. This forgets to tell you that while these injured contractors are home injured they have no other insurance. The only type of insurance they have if any is for the injury they have suffered. So if they get sick or hurt they have no where to go.
They have also no insurance for their children or spouse once they are home. The company they worked for does not have to carry any insurance on them or their family once they are home. Either does the insurance company covering them. So many end up lossing not only their savings, heath, home, family but also their lives while they wait for the DOL to make insurance companies pay what have already been paid by the tax dollars.
These are a few of the sites
http://www.propublica.org/feature/injured-war-zone-contractors-fight-to-get-care-from-aig-416
www.americancontractorsiniraq.org
http://defensebaseactcomp.wordpress.com/2009/04/
www.dbacomp.com
http://mssparky.com/