NU Online News Service, April 8, 2004, 6:05 p.m. EDT, Washington – Members of Congress want to know if soldiers are going into combat underinsured because of life application processing delays.[@@]
In a letter to the U.S. General Accounting Office, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., along with 2 colleagues, are asking for an examination of Defense Department policies and procedures for processing supplemental life applications.
The letter lists several concerns regarding the issue of supplemental life insurance.
"Specifically," the letter says, "we have learned that hundreds of military personnel who purchased supplemental life insurance policies are, in fact, not covered by these policies because the Army allegedly failed to process the required paperwork."
The letter says the problem appears to be most evident at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Lewis in Washington.
"We further understand that some of the servicemen and women who purchased these policies, believing they have insurance coverage, have been deployed to ?hot spots' around the world," the letter says.