pand the basic monitoring it already does. The space agency runs a voluntary health screening program for former astronauts, called the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health. But only 60 percent of the 280 living NASA astronauts actually take part in the program, said Richard Williams, NASA’s chief health and medical officer. An authorized health care program for all astronauts could help NASA gather much more data and increase participation, Williams said. "Given the group is so small, the data from each single one of them is precious," he said.
An extended monitoring program is estimated to cost NASA an extra $400,000 a year, Williams said, for a total of $800,000. Overall, the cost of health care for all NASA astronauts and their families would be around $2.4 million to $6.5 million a year, according to Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX).
NASA needs talk to the Department of Labor and the Department of Veteran Affairs, which both provide treatment for health conditions federal government employees develop because of their work, said Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD). Many astronauts, for example, used to be in the military and are already entitled to lifetime health care coverage. "It is a little bit problematic that 60 percent of the astronauts are retired military and you haven’t engaged the VA into this discussion before presenting a legislative proposal, but I hope that that happens really soon," Edwards told Williams.
Several speakers emphasized both the obligation NASA has to its former astronauts, as well as the possibility of learning more about how space alters the body. "Our flights and our careers have been paid for by taxpayers’ dollars. We owe those taxpayers those data to help them make informed decision about spaceflight," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut and the president of the Association of Space Explorers-USA.