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Bill would improve vets insurance benefits

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman introduced legislation Thursday to improve veterans insurance benefits.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, proposes to expand retroactive payments of traumatic injury insurance, to increase supplemental life insure for totally disabled veterans, and to create a new life insurance program for veterans with service-connected disabilities.

This is the second major veterans bill introduced this year by Akaka, who in early March unveiled a rehabilitation and employment package.

In a statement, Akaka said the new bill, S 728, “improves benefits for veterans with severe burn injuries, expands insurance programs, and secures cost-of-living increases for certain benefits, some of which have not been updated for decades.”

The traumatic injury insurance provision of the bill attempts to cover a loophole for traumatic injuries suffered by service members between Oct. 7, 2001, and Nov. 30, 2005, that were not a direct result of Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom. Injuries resulting from the two military operations were covered by the insurance back to the start of deployments, but other injuries were not covered by the insurance, which pays up to $100,000 under a rate plan based on the severity of the injury and expected length of recovery.

Akaka’s bill also makes service members with severe burns eligible for grants to adapt cars and housing to their disability. These two programs currently apply mostly to loss of limbs or loss of the use of limbs.

Akaka proposes a new life insurance program for veterans 65 and older who have service-connected disabilities. The program would offer a maximum of $50,000 in term life insurance, with an updated mortality table that he hopes will provide lower premiums than charged by the VA’s current Service-Disabled Veterans Insurance Program. Under the current program, a 60-year-old pays about $40 per year for each $1,000 of coverage.

In the case of benefits for parents of deceased service members, Akaka is addressing a neglected benefit. “The minimum benefit rate for low-income parents of children who have died during military service, or as the result of a service-connected disability, has remained at only $5 per month since 1975. This is unacceptable,” he said, proposing to increase the payment to $100.

Maximum coverage for two existing life insurance programs would be increased. Supplemental life insurance for totally disabled veterans would have the maximum coverage increased to $30,000, a $10,000 jump over the current cap.

Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance, a program for service-connected disabled veterans, today has a $90,000 cap that veterans complain is out of date, given the cost of homes. Akaka’s bill increases the maximum to $200,000.

“Many totally disabled veterans find it difficult to obtain commercial life insurance,” Akaka said in explaining why the programs are important.

The bill, like his earlier one, has been referred to the veterans committee for review. The two bills likely will form the backbone of omnibus veterans legislation that the committee will pass later this year.