Veterans Without Healthacare

[Ronald Gross]

This is NOTHING new, and it just serves to point out, once again, the simple fact that the Veteran's Health Care System is broken.  It has been for decades, the government has known it for decades, and the government really just doesn't give a damn!  And before anyone starts lambasting "W", let us remember that this total neglect of our veterans has spanned a multitude of administrations, both Republican AND Democratic.  Both parties are culpable - or more to the point, guilty of having no problem neglecting the very same people that they have ordered into harm's way.

Just my 2 cents, for what they are worth.  
Ron
>>> "Robert F. Smith" <rfsmithmd at comcast.net> 11/9/2007 5:34 AM >>>

Sorry, it didn't look like that when I sent it. HTML gibberish I guess.

This is the abstract from Pub Med: 

1: Am J Public Health. 2007 Oct 30; [Epub ahead of print] 

Lack of Health Coverage Among US Veterans From 1987 to 2004.

Himmelstein DU, 
Lasser KE,
McCormick D,
Bor DH,
Boyd JW,
Woolhandler S.

Harvard Medical School.

Objectives. Veterans Administration health care enrollment is restricted to
veterans with service-connected problems and those who are poor. We sought
to determine how many veterans were uninsured, trends in veterans' coverage,
and whether uninsured veterans lacked access to medical care. Methods. We
analyzed annual data from 2 federal surveys, the Current Population Survey
for the years 1988 to 2005 and the National Health Interview Survey for 2002
to 2004. Results. Nearly 1.8 million veterans were uninsured and not
receiving Veterans Administration care in 2004. The proportion of
working-age veterans lacking coverage peaked in 1993 at 14.2%, fell to 9.9%
in 2000, and rose steadily to 12.7% in 2004. Uninsured veterans had
substantial access problems; 51.4% had no usual source of care (vs 8.9% of
insured veterans), and 26.5% reported failing to get needed care because of
the cost (vs 4.3% of insured veterans). Conclusions. Many US veterans are
uninsured and lack adequate access to health care.

PMID: 17971547 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 

 

 

 


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