Chapter Two:
Current Veteran Demographics and Implications for Veterans’ Health Care
This chapter describes recent trends in the demography of veterans requesting services from the VA, including the numbers, age, and make-up of the veteran population, what types of illnesses they have, and how these changes are impacting the agency and the care that it provides. The impact of the large number of veterans returning with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is also discussed. The chapter concludes with projections about how these continuing trends will impact the VA―and the social, cultural, and economic impacts that will emerge from these trends―into the near future. These changes in the VA may impact you directly, and knowing these trends, you may be able to anticipate them and adapt―rather than react―to them.
As with the first chapter in this book (on the historical treatment of veterans), we include this chapter on the demographic composition of veterans and economic projections of the VA to provide you with a sense of perspective of some of the issues you may be currently facing.
Authors:
Ann Hendricks, Ph.D., is the Director of Health Care Financing and Economics (a research center at the VA Boston Healthcare System) and Associate Professor of Health Policy & Management at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Jomana H. Amara, Ph.D., P.E., is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.
Both have conducted research on the economics of health care and are currently working together to study the ways that the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are financially impacting the VA.
