(a message from DFNYC members Michael Minn and Costa Constantinides)

In an unfortunate confluence of foreign and domestic policy problems, a study by Harvard Medical School researchers published in the December, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health finds that 1.8 million veterans (12.7 percent of non-elderly veterans) were uninsured in 2004, up 290,000 since 2000. An addition 3.8 million members of their households were also uninsured and ineligible for VA care, bringing the total number of Americans affected to almost 6 million. And with the thousands of servicepeople who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since the end of the study data, that number is almost certainly considerably higher now.

Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, testified before Congress about the problem earlier this year:

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. As a result, veterans and their family members delay or forgo needed health care every day in the U.S. It's a disgrace.

Dr. David Himmelstein, co-author of the study and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program adds:

Since President Bush took office the number of uninsured vets has skyrocketed, and he's cut eligibility, barring hundreds of thousands of veterans from care. This administration has put troops in harm's way overseas and abandoned them and their families once they got home. We need a solution that works for veterans, their families, and all Americans - single payer national health insurance.

Dr. Jeffrey Scavron, a founding member and former president of Physicians for a National Health Program, adds:

I see uninsured vets in my clinic every week. 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.

Support the troops, indeed.