Nearly 1.7 million US vets lack insurance-study

This is unbelieveable the very people who keep us safe, protect our country and fight in our wars have no health coverage!

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Nearly 1.7 million U.S. veterans had no health care coverage in 2003 -- no access to private insurance, to Medicare or Medicaid or to the Veterans Affairs health program, health care advocates said on Tuesday.

Many had seen combat in Vietnam or the Gulf Wars and most were employed, the Physicians for a National Health Program and Public Citizen said in a joint report.

They found that more than one in three veterans under the age of 25 lacked health coverage, and one in 10 of those aged 45 to 65.

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"The number of uninsured veterans has increased by 235,159 since 2000, when 9.9 percent of non-elderly veterans were uninsured, a figure which rose to 11.9 percent in 2003," the groups said.

Can you believe this? Yet find one government worker that does not have full coverage, from the clerk in the post office to the top administrators you can bet they all have coverage, but the ones who put their lives on the line don't have insurance....

I deal with the VA on weekly basis! My husband has a serious injury received during active duty in the army in Germany...The VA is a total joke! You rarely see the same Dr, therefore you spend over half of each visit going over all the same history that you gave time and time and time before....while living in Nashville, they had him on so many drugs that he was like a zombie. many other insurances won't cover him because he is has the VA..it's a mess. They have jerked us around so much on everything, they won't give him his full disability when he was injured during active duty...we had a VA advocate that said not to be surprised if when we send for medical records we find many of the missing...it's a damn shame!

Lady V , It seems like while they are on active duty our servicemen and women can do no wrong, but once they are no longer in service, it is if they are something they would like to sweep under the carpet, it is horrendous how the government treats our veterans!

My Dad was a veteran of WW11 and a similar thing happened to him, he had a reaction to the medication they were giving him, instead of finding out what was wrong they were ready to send him to a nursing home, an observant nurse finally noticed his reaction to the drug and had a Dr. remove it from his medication list. Two days later he went home!