Va Life Insurance: Fill & Download for Free

All service members of the U.S. Armed Forces are automatically covered by a $400,000 life insurance policy under SGLI (Servicemembers Group Life Insurance), administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The cost is $28/month. Each individual service member may refuse parts of the coverage in $50,000 increments, each of which costs $3.50. So, by reducing the payout amount to $200,000 (four increments), his/her deduction per month is reduced to $14. Unlike many commercial life insurance policies, there is no augmentation for “accidental” death, nor death on the job.

Q: What’s the highest rating for a disabled veteran?Well, let’s see what the VA might do for a badly disabled veteran.My wife was a doctor who joined the Air Force for three years and went overseas during the Persian Gulf War.She spoke fluent German. We met in Europe in ‘90, supported the war, and went back to the states in ‘93 to exit the service. I retired, we had kids, and we both got work at the VA.Life was great. Being married to a doctor makes for some interesting conversations. We took a lot of vacations, traveled the world. I’m not gonna hide it, we made good money. And I spent every last penny. All of it, actually.Our tours in Europe had changed our lives. We decided our children MUST know Europe as part of their education. Every student should go overseas.We agreed our kids should get the best schools and get hard degrees, and go to Europe.Then, while looking for Christmas gifts at a bookstore, she tripped.Being of scientific mind, she wondered why that foot muscle failed.After Christmas we were told it was ALS, incurable, fatal. She was given 2–5 years to live. Doctors privately told me, after pressure from me, that she wouldn’t last a year. I kept that secret from her.Around that time, the VA discovered that ALS afflicts twice as many veterans as civilians. There is something about the military that makes ALS happen. Toxins?Remember the Gulf War. WMD? Chemicals? We went to war prepared to engage in a chemical nightmare. Everyone was issued charcoal lined coveralls, gas masks, and P-Tabs and Atropine injectors. These are actually dangerous, nearly deadly chemicals in themselves. But if you take it just before getting gassed with Sarin, the gas won’t kill you, and you might survive the P-Tab and Atropine. Such is war.Saddam Hussein, it turns out, didn’t have much of a chemical stockpile, if any.But we did.You never noticed, I’m sure. But I saw BIG, LONG trains, guarded by snipers, shuffling chemicals around Europe. We probably moved thousands of tons of nasty chemicals around the world beginning and after that war.I doubt it was noticed. Most people wouldn’t even recognize a nuclear missile and launcher driving through their neighborhood. We’re pretty good at hiding stuff in plain sight. I could tell stories…but I won’t.A few years later, so many vets came down with ALS that the VA conducted a study. Suddenly, they prematurely cancelled the study and simply announced that if a veteran had ALS, that vet would get VA benefits.Normally, a vet has to prove that the service caused their disability. But a few disabilities are so obviously caused by the military that the VA calls it a “presumptive” disability. It is “presumed” to be service connected.Everybody knows how slow the VA is, it can take months or YEARS to approve a claim.We drove up to the Tampa VA office and wheeled her into the lobby in her wheelchair. It was late in the day.The lady at the reception table said it was closing time.I handed her a package of forms. The top page said, from my wife’s perspective. “I will die in one or two years. Please expedite according to Rule Number xyz.”Then the lady said, stay here, and she went upstairs. When she returned, she said, they’re working on it now and they’ll work it tonight until it’s done.Very quickly, we started receiving appointments with specialists, she was fitted for a top of the line power wheelchair with all the latest features.The Paralyzed Veterans of America had a direct line to the decision makers at the VA. They knew the rules and the benefits available, so PVA helped us immensely.She was 100 percent Service Connected, Permanent and Totally disabled. All her medical care would be free for the rest of her life. They gave us toilet chairs, showering chairs, a remote control system and a special laptop that she could operate with her eyes to send email, “speak” out loud, change the channel and open the house front door.A young sales lady came to our house with a selection of vans to choose from. She knew the VA system of purchase and reimbursement and she spent days in our driveway seeing how well my wife could fit (or not) in each van. Some were too short. We traded in a car and the VA paid the rest.We put a hospital bed in our living room. Behind her bed, out of her sight, was a ton of emergency breathing equipment and enough oxygen bottles to keep a fire department operating in The Inferno.In front of her was a fireplace and TV and the family. I had a cot next to her. When someone cannot move a muscle, someone else has to spend 24 hours a day, moving their muscles for them, to keep them from getting swollen and painful.Our thirteen year old learned to mix medicine, crush pills, feed mom with a dropper, and transfer her with a sling into a lift, and roll the lift with mom in it, to the bathroom.I found a lawyer’s office, walked in, and said we needed papers really quick. Next day, the lawyer and her staff drove to our house with papers to “sign” through witnesses. My wife would “speak” through the computer. After helping us with a ton of paperwork,, the lawyer and her staff left, got into her car, and they broke into tears.I figured everybody knew. So when I went to a soccer practice, I started to talk to my son’s coach about my boy’s recent absence. “Hey coach. As you probably know, Stephen’s mom is on her deathbed, and I wanted to explain…” The coach jerked his head back, his mouth agape, he literally almost fell over. Next day, soccer moms started showing up with quite nice home-cooked meals.The VA can even modify a house for you. I planned to build a house with the necessary mods. VA would contribute tens of thousands to it.But in our case, they didn’t. They didn’t say it, but I saw in the regs that VA benefits can only be awarded IF THE VET WILL BE ABLE TO BENEFIT FROM THEM. But in our case, someone must have decided that she wouldn’t live to see a new house built.When all her limbs lay motionless, she was granted SMC R-2, that is, Special Monthly Compensation level for vets who cannot perform the Activities of Daily Living like brushing your teeth or dressing or wiping your butt.When a paralyzed person is blocked. somebody’s got go in and get it. That’s what the wedding vows mean. Wear gloves and use lube.Some people have it worse.At all times, 5000 Americans have ALS. Many don’t have insurance. They might get Medicaid, at best.I know of some vets who cannot handle the emotional stresses of being outside of their houses. The VA provided a driver for appointments.Some vets were unable to perform normal work for a real boss. So the VA provided them with training and equipment, including cameras and darkrooms, so they could pursue a hobby. The mission is to give the vet some quality of life.The VA pays the spouse to give Aid and Attendance at home, so the patient won’t have to be institutionalized.As she lay quiet, I played music she loved from Germany. I promised her I would get the kids to Europe, and get them good educations. I told her how wonderful she was, how she saved so many lives in her life. About our kids, I told her I was proud of how she made us into a happy family. I was proud of the kids, and glad she was the one person in the world who would raise children with me. I needed her.I promised I would get the kids a solid education, including travel..In August, her breathing and heartbeat faded to nothing as I held her hand. He whole, big, family, her sisters and nieces, surrounded her bed as I checked her eyes and blood pressure. Nothing.Tampa AFB sent a couple of volunteer two-stripers to the church in Orlando to fold the flag from her casket at the church ceremony. I asked the internet for a bugler, and two days later, a retired Army Lt Colonel rode in on his motorcycle. He played a beautiful and live rendition of Taps on his bugle that resonated through the big church.There was one woman at the funeral who was completely distraught and cried loudly all the time—the woman who sold us the van.Google Taps for Veterans.This is not your daddy’s VA. If you help a little, it can move fast and help you a lot.Look up veterans special monthly compensation.Later, the VA paid a monthly check for all dependents going to college. The state dept of education, with the state VA endorsement, paid our kid’s tuition.Note: The Social Security department also has a special expedite—approve first, then verify—for claims of the terminally ill. I cited the reg on a cover sheet. We got instant Social Security approval, plus Medicare.I considered it a promise to my wife, that I would get the kids into the best college and get them to know Europe. So we went to Europe a few times. I tried to get them into Purdue or Embry-Riddle, but they wanted to stay home at the local State U.Having actively participated in helping their mom made them into great compassionate and brave young men. They grew up straight, graduated, got married, and bought houses (!!!), much to my surprise. They and their wives have meaningful work at NASA, a banking software company, a hospital treating COVID patients, and as a child educator.My work now is done, sweetheart. I kept my promise.Thank you for all the help, VA.

Well, it wasn't actually 'recently', but it sure made me lose my confidence in this country. After 17 years of navy service, including the low pay, family separation, and all the rest, I found myself a disabled, retired vet. I do love the people who work for the VA; it's the system that sucks. I found out that to get a dime from VA, I first had to establish that I was a disabled vet. Being an idiot, I thought hat my discharge papers alone would be enough, but that's not how it works. It took over a year to get into the VA system. Then I found out that as far as benefits, there were really not many. For that 'free health care' I'd been promised, I had to get it at a VA hospital. Note that every town doesn't have one. And then even after I finally got in the system, I discovered that every dollar that I got from VA was subtracted from my Navy retirement check. I also found out that if I wanted to fight the VA system, I could not pay more than $200 for a lawyer, and I'd be fighting every lawyer in the federal government. Do you really want to know why many disabled vets blow their brains out? It's not because of PTSD. They just get tired of fighting the system, not getting the great health care they were promised, and normally spending their own money for whatever they need, like food & shelter. We actually had a president who fought for us. He tried like hell to get it so we would get both our VA checks and our military retired checks, but congress would never allow that. Finally they said that those who were actually disabled in combat could get both, but the rest of us, like those injured this month when a Navy destroyer crashed into a civilian cargo ship, or those injured on the flight decks of carriers, etc. were not good enough for any such special treatment. Then we elect this new president who claims to be a great patriot (???) and one of his new plans is to screw the disabled vets. Why, after all, should we be able to draw two federal checks? He wanted to stop our VA disability checks when we started to draw our social security checks. Note that this new law was NOT going to apply to healthy vets. Yes, this is when my confidence in a civilization that I defended for 17 years went right down the toilet. Luckily, enough members of congress realized that we all vote, and so do our wives, sons, and daughters. But if that law had passed, we would all be living out on the street. He would have tossed all us cripples out, to live on our social security checks. At the time, there was LOTS of very serious discussion about 'how to do it best'. If you just commit suicide, the life insurance probably won't even pay for the funeral, but if you die in an accident, like getting on the freeway going the wrong direction and aiming at the front of a Freightliner, your life insurance will pay that double indemnity. On the good side, as far as society goes, I still love our society; I get a 10% discount at Lowes & Home Depot, and every once in a while someone will say, "Thank you for your service". I love the American people, and I do love my life! But this great government we fought for doesn't give a rat's ass if we live or die once the war is over. Lose confidence? Sure. We have to depend on Donnie Trump & his cronies for any help at all. As far as he is concerned, we're about as handy as an ex-wife...we just beg for money.