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http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_department_of_veterans_affairs.pdf As per the VA's own information: $40 billion USD for health care 5.5 million veterans served in 2008. = Approx. $7,272.72 in FY 2008.
For 2012: $54.4 billion USD for health care 5.6 million (est) veterans served in 2012 or 6.2 million (est) vets and non-vets served in 2012. = $8,799 cost per patient is projected for 2012. Source: http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/Fy2012_Budget_Rollout.pdf Again, that shows that average cost of care in 2012 is certainly much higher than your citation. This data is directly from the VA. |
Ah, so for 2012, you took the total budget ($132 billion) and multiplied it by the percent spent on medical programs to get $54.4 billion?
I did the same for 2006 (data can be found in the report on the right hand side here) and got $6236 per patient per year, which is much higher than the $5000 reported by numerous news sites. I wonder how they're calculating the figure compared to how we're calculating it. And honestly, this makes me wonder how people are calculating the cost per person for private care as well.
I've also run the numbers for 2007. The VA spent $37.3 billion on "medical care & research" in FY07, and they treated ~5.600 million veterans, which amounts to ~$6600 per person, or an increase of almost $400 per person for the year. Though if they used whatever method they used in 2006 to calculate that $5000 figure, the 2007 figure might be lower. I guess they excluded research and calculated strictly medical care?
I'm having trouble tracking down any specific figures for private medical care in the US for 2007 or later, though I have found figures for the average cost of medical care in the US for 2007, amounting to $7290 per person:
http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/2011/04/26/cost-of-health-care-by-country-national-geographic/
The figures are from National Geographic. If accurate, then according to the latest data I can find the VA spends less than the average per person per year, and thus presumably less than then that spent by private care. Do you happen to have figures for a later year?
And I can't find any data detailing cost of care for veterans vs regular citizens, but I don't think it'd be dangerous to assume that veterans are more likely to have physical handicaps or suffer from mental conditions such as PTSD than the average US citizen, given many of our veterans have spent time in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Any such people would, theoretically, require more care than the average person, thus raising their total costs for the year. It doesn't change the current data we have available, but it's something to keep in mind.
