I came across an article in the LAT that ties together the ills of war profiteering, outsourcing, and the health insurance labyrinth. The article details the hardships that befell Gregorio Calixto, after he was sent back to Peru after being injured by shrapnel from a mortar.
Iraq contractors tap Latin America's needy
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 28, 2008
...He is one of several thousand Latin Americans who have taken jobs with U.S. contractors as security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 1,200 Peruvians are in Iraq, mostly guarding sites in Baghdad's Green Zone. Chileans, Colombians, Salvadorans and Hondurans have also served as part of the polyglot assemblage providing "conflict labor" in U.S. war zones.
One of the many private security firms profiting from the war in Iraq, Triple Canopy, has been recruiting personnel from Central America to see if they can run the gauntlet of Iraq for a year or two on end. Triple Canopy is barely paying US minimum wage.
Where to begin?
I've always thought that all the money being funnelled into private security companies would be much better spent increasing pay and benefits for the US Military (unless you want to use it for stupid things like universal health care or free education). It would seem that better pay and benefits for military personnel would give the military a chance of recruiting competent personnel that might actually stay in their respective service for longer than their initial commitment instead of bolting to work for, um, the high-paying private security companies.
God (or maybe Shrub), only knows how much moolah Triple Canopy is pocketing by employing exploiting the recruits it sends to Iraq from Central America. According to Wiki and the LAT article, Triple Canopy security personnel from Central America made an average of $1,000 per month (with an extra $500 for English-speakers). That is slave-wage compared to the $400 to $700 per day that typical US contractors make in Iraq ($400 per day is roughly $10,500 per month, working six days per week).
I guess that means that the US Gov't couldn't afford to pay Triple Canopy enough to hire one of the millions of unemployed Americans to send to Iraq as a security guard. Right now, you are probably wondering "ok, you've covered the war profiteering and outsourcing, but what about the 'Bad Health Insurance' part?"
Shrapnel had made a deep gouge on the inside of his right thigh. Calixto would spend a month in U.S. and British hospitals in Iraq, receiving a skin graft before being sent home on crutches last February. His left eardrum was also damaged; he uses a hearing aid.
Calixto says he has no complaints about his treatment in Iraq. The problem, he says, has been getting help since his return to Peru. The U.S. Defense Base Act requires that contractors such as Triple Canopy provide coverage, including disability, for work-related injuries. Claims, however, are reviewed by the U.S. Labor Department and are administered by a U.S. insurance company.
(Emphasis mine)
The article goes on to describe Mr Calixto's attempts to contact representatives in the US by telephone, only to fail because, here is the kicker, nobody on the other end of the line speaks Spanish. His plight reads like the all-too-common story of a person in need of health-care who is abandoned by his or her health insurer. I wonder if Triple Canopy considered that employees from Central America would also be less costly because they would have a much harder time collecting on health and disability benefits?
I can't wait till my local police officer is replaced by a Peruvian national working for Pinkerton Gov't Services. Can we please stop the war profiteering and spend that money on pay and benefits for US military personel? (Or maybe on little things like rebuilding NOLA, or weening ourselves from the petroleum teet)