Problems in Administering the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance Program in the Ready Reserve

The Veterans Administration (VA) and the uniformed services have had problems administering the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance Program and determining the eligibility of some reservists since the Veterans' Insurance Act extended the coverage to members of the Ready Reserve. A large number of reservist are receiving free insurance coverage at the expense of other members because the law has no provision to cancel coverage for members who do not pay their premiums.

Although the program is financially sound, some of the services are not forwarding premiums to the VA for members who are not making payments as they are legally required to do. The law requires the services to deduct sufficient funds from their appropriations to pay the premiums for all participation in the Ready Reserve and forward the fund to VA. Although the present program has been in effect for 6 years, there is still some doubt and confusion in determining eligibility for some members in the Ready Reserve. The law does not stipulate whether members in a nonpay status are required to perform scheduled periods of inactive duty training. The services have expressed concern about the lack of an obligation to members scheduled for training.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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