Government life insurance refers to the program created by the U.S. government in 1917 to provide insurance for soldiers who served during World War I. The government stopped issuing these policies in 1951, seven years after World War II.
In 1917, the US declared war against Germany, initiating the first world war. Private insurance companies deemed soldiers too high an insurance risk and, as a result, denied them coverage or charged them very high premiums. The government remedied this problem by offering life insurance to enlisted soldiers.
As of 1983, all premiums had already been paid, and as of 2010, there were still a number of surviving policyholders.
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