Possible Higher Spending Paths for Veterans' Benefits

Abstract

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) administers programs to aid former members of the armed forces and their families. By far the largest share of its budget is spent on two programs, one that pays compensation to veterans who have service-connected disabilities and one that provides medical care to veterans. VAs spending (adjusted to remove the effects of inflation) has grown rapidlyfrom $64 billion, or 2.6 percent of all federal spending, in 2000 to $180 billion, or 4.4 percent of spending, in 2017.1 (The Congressional Budget Office estimates that spending was $187 billion in 2018; however, CBOs analysis focused on 2017, because it lacked information required to provide a detailed analysis of VAs 2018 spending.) That large increase has prompted concerns about the long-run affordability of VA benefits, particularly if their cost continues to increase at the same rate as in recent years.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1134874

Entities

People

  • Heidi Golding

Organizations

  • Congressional Budget Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Budgets
  • Congress
  • Cost Estimates
  • Costs
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Discretionary Spending
  • Education
  • Federal Budgets
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Law
  • Medical Personnel
  • Price Index
  • Traumatic Stress Disorder
  • United States

Readers

  • Economics
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting