It's unfortunate The Forum didn't dig a bit deeper in your recent investigation of insurance availability for returning military ("Returned soldiers' insurance may rise," May 17).
In April 2003, Safeco was among the first insurance companies to announce a policy allowing active-duty military customers to temporarily cancel and restart their coverage at any time, without penalty (Safeco press release, April 9, 2003). The rate returning soldiers pay is the same as if they had never changed their coverage - they simply need to let their agent know about their military status.
We notified all of our agents about this policy, including the independent agents who sell Safeco insurance products in North Dakota. Unfortunately, it appears from your story that the agency was mistaken in its characterization of Safeco's policy, both to the Department of Insurance and the newspaper. If The Forum had given us the opportunity to address the specific allegation before the story went to press, we are confident the paper would have found the charge to be baseless.
In times of conflict, the men and women on active duty in the armed forces must be allowed to serve their country, confidently knowing their personal business back home is being cared for. That's why we have our active military duty policy, and that's why we want to set the record straight.
John Blodnick
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Vice president
Safeco Personal Insurance
Seattle
