It's Not Just a Day

Support the Troops, be sue to wear the American Flag Pin, and above all, shop till you drop at the Mall -- all the slogans to go with the celebration of Veterans Day. But for the real vets, it's not just a day.

I may be a pacifist, and would prefer to avoid war at all costs, but I do believe that we need to honor and respect those who have served on behalf of our country, at our request. Despite the slogans, we are not doing that. There was the scandal regarding Walter Reed Hospital last February, see (Don't Worry) If There's Hell Below . . ., which has not really been fixed. As the Boston globe reported:

EVEN AS our government puts members of our armed services in harm's way, it is failing to care for them once they return home. Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends.

According to a study by some of my colleagues at Harvard Medical School, to be published in next month's American Journal of Public Health, nearly 1.8 million veterans had no health insurance in 2004, up 290,000 since 2000. An additional 3.8 million members of their households were also uninsured and ineligible for care at hospitals and clinics run by the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The 2006 data released this year show little change in these numbers.

See Healthcare for vets - and all others. A NYTimes editorial echoed this situation, Veterans Without Health Care:

Although many Americans believe that the nation’s veterans have ready access to health care, that is far from the case. A new study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School has found that millions of veterans and their dependents have no access to care in veterans’ hospitals and clinics and no health insurance to pay for care elsewhere. Their plight represents yet another failure of our disjointed health care system to provide coverage for all Americans.

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Most of the uninsured veterans were working-class people who were too poor to afford private insurance but not poor enough to qualify for care under a priority system administered by the Veterans Affairs Department. Some were unable to get care because there was no V.A. facility nearby, or the nearest facility had a long waiting list, or they could not afford the co-payments required of some veterans.

There is little doubt that lack of coverage was deleterious to their health. Like other uninsured Americans, the uninsured veterans report that they have delayed or forgone care because of costs. Half had not seen a doctor in the past year, and two-thirds got no preventive care.

And the situation has been getting worse. Despite a shrinking population of working-age veterans, the number of uninsured veterans increased by 290,000 between 2000 and 2004, propelled by a steady erosion of health care coverage in the workplace and a tightening of enrollment criteria for veterans’ care.

The V.A. has long focused on caring for recent combat veterans, those with service-connected disabilities or special needs and the poorest veterans. Other veterans were served to the extent that resources were available. Unfortunately, in recent years enrollment of higher-income, nondisabled veterans shot up so fast that long waiting lists developed and budgets failed to keep pace, forcing a freeze on enrollments in this category.

And, of course, to add insult to injury, there is the problem of homelessness that is afflicting our returning vets. As Carol Hoenig at Huffington Post said, Revered but Homeless -- Our Veterans:

On this Veteran's Day, let's be sure to wear our American flag pins in honor of our war heroes. In addition, let's drive our gas-guzzling vehicles to the mall, pull out our over-extended credit card, and spend money we don't have on a new mattress or an upgraded DVD player, thanks to those ubiquitous Veteran's Day sales! After all, this is how we are asked to support our troops, right? Never mind that the National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that veterans make up one-quarter of the homeless population.

Knowing this, can we really celebrate Veteran's Day? Maybe we should instead focus on fixing these problems for those who gave of themselves in the service of our country, which would be the better way to offer our thanks.

(Cartoon by Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle)

Tags: Veteran's Day