Veterans and the Health Care Crisis

Since today is Veteran’s Day I decided to delay posting part 2 on market economies but to instead this week address how large numbers of veterans, when they return from serving their country, are denied access to basic health care.

In a recent study, "Lack of Health Coverage Among U.S. Veterans from 1987 to 2004", it was revealed that as of 2004 nearly 1.8 million veterans lacked health care coverage. When one included the members of their households then the numbers without health care coverage shot up to 3.8 million.

This lack of health care coverage for veterans and their families is symptomatic of a larger problem in our society. According to the study, "Like other uninsured adults, most uninsured veterans are low- to middle-income workers, who may be too poor to afford private coverage but are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or free VA care." In other words, the problem of the lack of health care coverage for our veterans is the same as those found in the general public.

There are “third way” solutions to providing health care coverage to veterans and indeed to all Americans. Those solutions will be addressed in future postings. At this time it is sufficient to say that high-quality, affordable health care is a fundamental human right. Our “leaders” in Washington need to wake up and realize that we are not consumers of health care anymore than we are consumers of the air that we breathe. Without both we die.