Healthcare Absent for Many Vets, Group Says

Nearly 1.7 million veterans have no health insurance or access to government hospitals and clinics for veterans, according to a report Tuesday from a doctors’ group that favors federally financed healthcare. The Bush administration disputed the numbers.

The number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000, meaning they are losing health insurance at a faster rate than the general population, said Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates a universal national health insurance program. About 45 million Americans have no health insurance, including 5 million who lost coverage during the last four years, according to the Census Bureau.

“We’re sending men and women off to war, and yet the people who fought previous wars can’t get the basic things they need to go on with their lives afterward,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, a Harvard Medical School professor and an author of the study.

The report traced some of the increase to the Bush administration’s decision last year to suspend healthcare services for higher-income veterans who don’t have service-connected illnesses or injuries. The move was intended to reduce waiting times for doctor’s appointments for other veterans.

Other veterans reported they were on waiting lists for appointments, could not afford co-payments or lived in communities with no veterans’ facilities, the report said.

Cynthia Church, spokeswoman for the Veterans Affairs Department, said the doctors’ group was “using veterans to advance their political agenda.”

The administration estimates the number of uninsured veterans as fewer than 900,000, Church said. Wait times to see doctors have been reduced, she said.

Almost all uninsured veterans served during Vietnam, or more recently. Those who fought in World War II and in Korea are over 65, making them eligible for Medicare.