I will make this quick and dirty. A Harvard University study released this week states that 1.46 million of our veterans go without health insurance every day, leading to 2,266 preventable deaths annually for veterans under the age of 65.
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
http://www.pnhp.org/...
I have a simple question. Why not make our soldiers and veterans immediately eligible for lifelong enrollment in Medicare?
More from Physicians for a National Health Program:
Using their recently published findings in the American Journal of Public Health that show being uninsured raises an individual’s odds of dying by 40 percent (causing 44,798 deaths in the United States annually among those aged 17 to 64), they arrived at their estimate of 2,266 preventable deaths of non-elderly veterans in 2008. (See table.)
"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 professor at Harvard Medical School who testified before Congress about uninsured veterans in 2007 and carried out the analysis released today [Tuesday]. "As a result, veterans go without the care they need every day in the U.S., and thousands die each year. It’s a disgrace."
I have a simple solution - offering the same social protection to our fighting men and women that we offer to our senior citizens.
Of course, I am a steadfast member of the "Medicare for All" camp, and believe that every American citizen should be enrolled in Medicare. As a tactical move, however, perhaps it is best to make the public case that certain segments of the population are particularly vulnerable and are worthy of our protection. I can make a similar argument about children under the age of 18, for example.
It is well and good to pause and thank our veterans for their service on this Veterans Day. We should also recall that supporting and honoring our men and women in uniform goes beyond "thanking them," and it goes beyond sporting a nice yellow ribbon on our cars. It means supporting them throughout their lives in honor of their service. It means, in very small part, ensuring that they have lifelong access to quality health care.