TUESDAY, Oct. 19, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Nearly 1.7 million U.S. veterans lack health insurance, according to a new report by the advocacy group Public Citizen.
The findings contradict assumptions about health care for veterans, said report author Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
"Most people would think they [veterans] were better off than other people, but there are very many of them who aren't getting the care they need," he said.
After examining U.S. Census figures and federal health statistics from 2003, Himmelstein and his colleagues found that 682,000 of the uninsured veterans served during the Vietnam War, while the other 1 million served at other times, including the 1991 Gulf War.
Overall, the number of uninsured veterans is growing. Nearly 10 percent of non-elderly veterans were uninsured in 2000, according to the study, while nearly 12 percent were uninsured in 2003.
"They're not just veterans," Himmelstein said. "Eighty-six percent of them are people who are working or recently have been working. Seven percent are working two jobs."
Older veterans, such as those who served during World War II, are typically eligible for Medicare.
Many of the uninsured veterans lost access to federally funded health care in 2003 because of Bush administration cutbacks that reduced services for middle-income veterans, Himmelstein said. "Since that time, anyone who's not very poor and doesn't have a war wound that caused them disability is not eligible," he said.
Some veterans were eligible for Veterans Administration (VA) health coverage but were counted as uninsured in the report because they couldn't get treatment due to lengthy waiting lists at VA facilities, high co-payments or lack of nearby clinics and hospitals, the report said.
Gail Wilensky co-chaired a presidential task force on veteran's health care from 2001-2002 and currently works as a senior fellow at the health advocacy organization Project HOPE. She criticized the report's conclusions, saying the Veterans Administration is doing a good job of providing health care to as many former servicemen and women as possible.
Wilensky said the VA is right to focus on two groups -- the poor and veterans who suffered injuries during their service. "There is enough money in the system for that to happen," she said. "The system was not set up to serve 25 million veterans, and I think that's how many who are around now."
"The VA is a place of care; it's a very important place of care for about 5 or 6 million veterans," Wilensky added. "But it does not normally qualify someone as being insured."
Public Citizen, founded by consumer advocate and presidential candidate Ralph Nader, is the first organization in some time to estimate the number of uninsured veterans, Himmelstein said. And it's the first group ever, he said, to look at the number of uninsured family members -- an estimated 3.9 million -- of uninsured veterans. Veterans benefits generally don't cover family members, he said.
More information
Learn more about veterans' benefits from the Veterans Administration.
