Poisonous Fogs of War
Whether one looks back to soldiers exposed to radiation in World War II, to Agent Orange in Vietnam or to possible environmental poisons in the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. government hasn’t always given military veterans the healthcare and attention they deserve. Two recent studies show that the problem continues.
The first, released by Harvard Medical School researchers last week, found that the percentage of uninsured non-elderly veterans rose from 1 in 10 in 2000 to 1 in 8 in 2003.
The second, a draft report by a presidential panel of medical experts studying Gulf War illnesses, concluded that stress, the conventional explanation for the poor health of many veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, probably ranks far behind brain abnormalities caused by exposure to sarin gas, pesticides or some other battlefield poison.
Both studies have their problems.
The Harvard analysis used solid government data to conclude that nearly 1.7 million veterans lacked health coverage last year, but the results were quickly politicized. Just weeks before the presidential election, the study’s authors tried to pin the problem on the Bush administration’s January 2003 decision to end enrollment in VA-run hospitals and clinics for veterans with the lowest of eight priorities for treatment: Their illnesses aren’t defined as service-related and their median incomes exceed $25,200 a year.
It’s hard to stomach, particularly in time of war, that U.S. veterans in need of care would be turned away. But the solution taken up by congressional Democrats -- to pay for more care by raising the VA’s budget by $3.1 billion this year -- doesn’t dig very deep. The Department of Veterans Affairs should first try a lot harder to recover the hundreds of millions of dollars that Medicare HMOs and other insurers owe it for care provided to their members at VA hospitals.
The second study, reporting new evidence of neurological abnormalities in Desert Storm vets, suffers from data starvation. In the 1991 Gulf War, the Pentagon did only a cursory job of collecting, tracking and analyzing soldiers’ exposure to potential poisons, so it is impossible in many cases to link symptoms to definite exposure. That doesn’t mean the syndrome can be dismissed.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ research arm, tracks reductions in federal support for Gulf War illness treatment and research, even as evidence has grown that neurological illness, not psychological stress, is the culprit. Research funding ought to be much more generous. If exposure to very small doses of poisons can produce neurological havoc, there are grim implications for future wars, including those against terrorism.
Perhaps not every veteran can be treated for every illness for life. But the more attention is paid to veterans’ health, the more the military can find ways to prevent the physical and psychological effects of wars.
