VETERANS HEALTH CARE

The Veterans Health System is very complex, and, perhaps because the issue has become politicized, it has not been noted that there are many options for veterans to receive health care beside The Veterans Administration (!)  As seen in the figure, more than 30% of veterans in 2010 said they do not plan to use VA services at all and only 29% of post 9/11 veterans say they plan to use the VA for their primary medical care.  The total pool of veterans as of March31, 2014 was 21,973,000.  As time goes on the number of surviving vets is estimated to decrease to 19,604,000 in 2020, 16.777,000 in 2030, and 14,463,000 in 2040 as the Korean War and Vietnam War veterans pass away..  In FY 2013, there were a total of 8.92 million vets in all parts of the VA Health Care System.

Some of the other options than the VA for vet health care are Tri-Care For Life mainly for Veterans age 65 and over who also enroll in and pay the fees for Medicare B.*  Veterans are also eligible for the ACA (Affordable Care Act) benefits for which they pay nothing if they earn less than 135% of the poverty level for four and pay reduced fees in a sliding scale above that.**  Quite a few veterans work for the civilian government after their military career and are eligible for the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHB).

The VA also pays for care outside the VA program in some cases.  "VA officials did not provide an estimated cost of the initiative but said in fiscal 2014, it already has paid for health services of 904,714 veterans at non-VA facilities at a cost of $3.38 billion."***


* http://www.military.com/benefits/tricare/retiree/tricare-for-life.html
** http://www.va.gov/health/aca/EnrolledVeterans.asp
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Health_System