Potential Spending on Veterans’ Medical Care

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides medical care to a large share of veterans. This paper describes some of the distinctive features of the system—including the services provided, funding mechanism, and cost to veterans. It then examines the growth in the cost of providing services over the past decades and of expanding access to medical care by non-VA providers and facilities. The paper presents two projections of VA spending growth over the next decade, both of which could raise concerns about affordability in a period of constrained federal budgets.