BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A new study from Harvard University has found that U.S. military veterans are often among the "working poor" who go without health insurance -- and their lack of care is killing them.

The study estimated that 1.4 million working-age veterans were uninsured last year, despite the fact that many had jobs. They did not make enough to afford private insurance, but had too much money to qualify for government insurance from the VA or Medicaid.

The researchers had previously found that a lack of health insurance increases a person's odds of dying by 40 percent. When they applied this figure to U.S. Census data, the team calculated that more than 2,200 veterans died last year because they had no access to health care.

This is more than 14 times the number of troops killed in Afghanistan over the same time period.

The researchers said that the health reform bill currently in Congress will not rectify the problem as it leaves millions of people, including veterans, still uninsured.