WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Nearly 1.7 million American military veterans lacked health insurance in 2003, a Harvard Medical School study indicates.
That number represents 11.9 percent of the nation's veterans, according to the study.
More than 200,000 additional uninsured veterans have been added to the rolls of the uninsured since 2000. Young and recent veterans are disproportionately represented in the group: one in three veterans under 25 does not have healthcare coverage.
Of the 1.694 million veterans, 681,808 were Vietnam-era vets and 999,548 served in other wars, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The data was drawn from government surveys. Veterans were considered uninsured if they had neither private health insurance nor received care from the Veterans Health Administration.
Many of those without healthcare were middle-income veterans barred from VHA clinics by a 2003 order from the Bush administration, according to the study. Others were blocked by long waiting lists, unaffordable co-payments for government healthcare or a lack of VHA facilities in their communities.
