<table> </table> The e-mail suggestion of a good deed for a wounded soldier was appealing in its simplicity. A little too easy.</p><p>Write a letter or send a card to a recovering soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the e-mail message implored. Make a soldier part of your Christmas card list.</p><p>As the friend who forwarded it to me noted, &#8220;Even if you hate the war, you have to love the soldier.&#8221;</p><p>It was a hoax. Inundated in recent weeks by good-hearted Americans, Walter Reed has posted a notice on its Web site to head off the mail landslide. For security reasons, the hospital cannot accept mail not addressed to a specific soldier.</p><p>After the pomp and parades of Veterans Day, now is an appropriate time to set aside the feel-good, easy-to-soothe-the-conscience-of-the general-public route of honoring our military.</p><p>Several recent studies have shown what veterans really need: better access to medical and mental health care.</p><p>Nearly 1.8 million veterans are uninsured and not getting care from the Veterans Administration, according to a report published in the December 2007 edition of <em>American Journal of Public Health</em>. The report looked at numbers for 2004. The authors believe the numbers are rising, with the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.</p><p>Medicare takes care of most veterans from World War II and the Korean War because of their age, so most of the uninsured soldiers are from the Vietnam War and the more recent conflicts.</p><p>The Harvard Medical School doctors began the study after noting a high number of veterans among the uninsured at the public hospitals where they worked. But even before they began mining the U.S. Census and National Center for Health Statistics for data, they made this discovery. Actually, it shouldn&#8217;t be a discovery at all, but would likely shock most Americans, as it did the doctors.</p><p>&#8220;We, and most colleagues we spoke with, assumed that all veterans qualify for care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals and clinics. In fact, only a minority of veterans &#8212; those disabled by military service &#8212; are automatically eligible for VA care,&#8221; said the report, &#8220;Lack of Health Coverage Among U.S. Veterans From 1987 to 2004.&#8221;</p><p>Worse, the doctors noted government efforts to deter veterans from seeking care. The report cites a 2002 memo ordering VA regional directors to &#8220;ensure that no marketing activities to enroll new veterans occur,&#8221; citing &#8220;demand for health care that exceeds our resources.&#8221;</p><p>Most people would agree helping veterans is a good idea, but realize it is also a costly one. Should we loosen the restrictions on income to get benefits? Build more hospitals and clinics &#8212; a costly endeavor &#8212; to reach veterans who do not live near VA hospitals now?</p><p>Self-sufficiency is also an issue. How much extra care is a person due because of past military service? Where does appropriate help end and dependency begin?</p><p>Veterans are thought to be 12 percent of the nation&#8217;s 47 million uninsured people. How much priority should they receive above, say, children?</p><p>The most helpful and cost-effective aid for soldiers would be given as soon as possible after they leave combat. The inability to work due to mental health and/or physical limitations will only compound over time. But a healthy ex-soldier can get a job that might offer him or her medical care, negating the need for the government to step in via the VA.</p><p>Another report by Physicans for Social Responsibility, an anti-war group, put the expected health-care costs of soldiers returning from Iraq as high as $660 billion.