Ok, this is crazy!

We have around 200,000 private contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan. By law the companies must provide each employee a from of workman's comp insurance. very few insurance companies offer such insurance for war zones.

AIG provides 85% of these policies and they charge a rate of 1 to 1 based on the employees salary so someone making $100,000 in a year (an average salary for the work) would cost $100,000 to insure. This cost is paid for by the American Taxpayer through the Pentagon which is who pays for these contracts.

Now the craziest part is that there is another law that requires the American government to reimburse an insurance company 100% of medical costs incurred by someone in a combat zone. So we pay AIG $100,000 a year per person for insurance and then reimburse AIG for all their medical costs!!!!!

The Pentagon has actually suggested cutting AIG out of the equation which would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions but as of yet there is noone in Congress who wants to try and get rid of this crazy law that lines the pockets of the insurance industry who intern keeps the politicians on their payrole via campaign contributions and lobbying jobs (which pay millions). Piss off the corporations and you piss off your future employer and cash cow .once you are out of office.

This info was from T. Christian Miller who wrote the book : "Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq" and who's new book focuses on the lives of those contractors who take the jobs supporting our military and what happens to them once they are injured by war. It is called somthing like "our throw away army".

Check out his Defense Act Compensation Blog