Army Spc. James Christian Paquette walked into the benefits office at Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, with a question: Did his military life insurance policy pay in cases of suicide? He was assured that it did.
Less than two weeks later, he shot and killed himself — and his family collected $400,000.
His widow struggles with the question of whether he would have proceeded with his plan if suicide had not been covered. "He just wanted to know we would be provided for," Jami Calahan said. "It may have been a weight taken away."
The role of life insurance has not been closely examined in the quest to understand why 352 active-duty service members took their own lives last year — more than double the number a decade earlier.
The suicide rate began rising sharply in 2005. That same year, as casualties mounted in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress raised the standard coverage from $250,000 to $400,000, which most service members carry. If they die on active duty, their families also receive a $100,000 "death gratuity."
The coverage begins upon enlistment. By comparison, private insurance policies in the U.S. typically don't cover suicide for the first two years a policy is in effect.
"In certain cases, it absolutely could factor in," said Thomas Joiner, a Florida State University psychologist studying military suicide. "You're already thinking my death will be worth more than my life to my friends, my family and society."
Paquette's widow, who said she learned about her husband's visit to the benefits office from military investigators, couldn't understand why nobody intervened after her husband raised a red flag by asking about coverage.
In some ways, though, his July 2011 suicide seemed unstoppable, she said. Her husband became deeply disturbed during his deployment to Afghanistan, where he had accidentally gunned down a young boy during a firefight.
Three years after his return, he became suicidal and was hospitalized for a month of psychiatric care. He died three weeks after his release at age 40, leaving behind two sons.
"He felt we were better off without him," said Calahan, who has since remarried.
The military first offered life insurance during World War I, because service members could not buy private policies, which excluded war. The current policy dates to a 1965 law and covers all causes of death except execution for treason.
Given the complexity of suicide and the military, experts have struggled to tease apart the causes of the suicide epidemic. Research has downplayed the role of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. More than half the active-duty suicide victims between 2008 and 2011 had never been to the war zones.
One theory gaining traction is that over the last decade, more people entered the military with pre-existing risk factors for suicide.
No expert suggested that insurance was a major driver. But for service members who are already distressed, knowing that death comes with a financial reward for their families could provide extra motivation, researchers said.
The idea is not new.
In India, thousands of cotton farmers have committed suicide in recent years after becoming indebted to aggressive money lenders. Media reports there have suggested that some states unwittingly contributed to the problem by paying compensation to their families.
And researchers have found that restrictions on coverage can influence suicide rates among people who buy private life insurance.
A 2004 study at the University of Chicago found that the suicide rate quadrupled after the initial two-year exclusion period. In 2010, researchers analyzing insurance data from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea found a suicide spike immediately after the 13-month exclusion period in those countries.
That study also showed that policyholders who died of suicide were insured for greater sums than those who died of natural causes.
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