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["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap10-19-082019.asp?t=apnew&vts=101920041509<http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap10-19-082019.asp?t=apnew&vts=101920041509>

      Report says 1.7 million veterans have no health coverage 
     
            By MARK SHERMAN
            ASSOCIATED PRESS 
     
     
      WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - Nearly 1.7 million military 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 health care. 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 past 
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 health care 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 at 
under 900,000, Church said. Wait times to see doctors also have been reduced, 
she said. 
             More than 300,000 were waiting more than six months for 
appointments in July 2002, she said. ''Now, virtually no veteran waits more 
than 60 days,'' she said. 
             Like other Americans who are uninsured, most veterans have jobs. 
More than 85 percent worked within the past year, the report said. 
             Many uninsured veterans reported serious health problems, the 
report said. Between 20 percent and 30 percent said that they delayed or 
could not afford care, medications and eyeglasses. 
             More than 40 percent said they had no medical visits in the past 
year and two-thirds said they had no preventive care. 
             Another 3.9 million people without health insurance live in 
veterans' households and also are ineligible for veterans' health care, the 
report said. 
             Almost all uninsured veterans served during the Vietnam war or 
more recently. Those who fought in World War II and the Korean War are older 
than 65, making them eligible for government health care through Medicare. 


             On the Net: 
             Physicians for a National Health Program: 
<>http://www.pnhp.org/<http://www.pnhp.org/> 

     
     
      © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be 
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.