Almost two million veterans lack health coverage

One in every eight (12.2 percent) of the 47 million Americans without health insurance is a veteran or member of a veteran's household, according to a study by Harvard Medical School researchers based at the Cambridge Health Alliance.

The study is published in the December, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Just under two million veterans (12.7 percent of non-elderly veterans) were uninsured in 2004, up 290,000 since 2000, the study published in the December, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health found.  An additional 3.8 million members of their households were also uninsured and ineligible for VA care.

The study is based on detailed analyses of government surveys released between 1988 and 2005.  Veterans were only classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals or clinics. 

A preliminary review by the study’s authors of 2006 data released last month (while this study was in press) shows little change in the number of uninsured veterans since 2004.

“Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people – too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a physician at Cambridge Health Alliance and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Woolhandler testified before Congress about the problem earlier this year.  “As a result, veterans and their family members delay or forgo needed health care every day in the U.S.,” said Woolhandler.

Other findings of the study include:

• The number of uninsured veterans has increased by  290,000 since 2000, when 9.9% of non-elderly veterans were uninsured, a  figure which rose to 12.7% in 2004;
  
• Of the 1.768 million uninsured, 645,628 were  Vietnam-era veterans while 1,105,891 were veterans who served during “other  eras” (including the Iraq and Gulf Wars);
  
• Of uninsured veterans, 56.5% were older than  44;

• Uninsured veterans had as much trouble getting  medical care as other uninsured Americans.  26.5% of uninsured veterans  reported that they had failed to get needed care due to costs; 31.2% had  delayed care due to costs; 49.1% had not seen a doctor within the past year;  and two-thirds failed to receive preventive care.

•  Nearly two-thirds of uninsured veterans were  employed. Many uninsured veterans are barred from VA care because of a Department of Veterans Affairs order in early 2003 that halted enrollment of most middle income veterans.  Others are unable to obtain VA care due to waiting lists at some VA facilities, unaffordable co-payments for VA specialty care, or the lack of VA facilities in their communities.
  

“The number of uninsured vets has skyrocketed since 2000, and eligibility has been cut, barring hundreds of thousands of veterans from care,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, lead author of the study, a physician at Cambridge Health Alliance, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard. “We need a solution that works for veterans, their families, and all Americans – single payer national health insurance,” he said.

“I see uninsured vets in my clinic every week,” said Dr. Jeffrey Scavron, a former Navy Physician in Springfield, Massachusetts. “In many cases, they’re too sick to work, but not yet sick enough for full disability which would qualify them for Medicare.  Only the government can put men and woman into military service and only the government can guarantee that they are covered after they serve."