DCFOUNTAIN.COM

If that’s not enough to rattle one’s sense of outrage, one of every eight veterans has no access to health insurance coverage or VA medical care, according to an unrelated study by Harvard Medical School researchers published in the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Of those uninsured vets, one in four say they fail to get medical care they need due to costs; one in three delay care due to costs, two of every three fail to receive preventive care, and half have not even seen a doctor in the past year.

In 2003, ironically the year it launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Bush Administration began banning middle-income veterans from receiving VA medical care. This action alone has swelled the ranks of uninsured vets, which already had been unacceptably high due to long waiting lists at some VA facilities, unaffordable co-payments for VA specialty care, and the lack of a VA facility within an easy drive of some veterans’ homes.

The shame only grows. Our nation’s veterans are receiving medical benefits based on horrifically outdated guidelines known as the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities — last comprehensively updated during the WW II era. These guidelines often do not coincide with current medical practices and standards, particularly in mental health — a real problem considering the sharp rise in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases resulting from current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So the next time you hear any public official grandstanding with the “support our troops” line, remind them that our obligations don’t end when our troops set foot back on homeland soil. Tell them to put your tax dollars where their windbag of a mouth is.

The most prosperous nation in the history of the world has a fundamental moral obligation to each and every returning veteran: guarantee that he or she has access to job training, affordable housing, and the absolutely best medical and mental health care available.

Our veterans have paid their dues — and then some. When they come home, they should be able to count on us paying ours.

Photo: Sha Sha Chu