February 24, 2012 - It’s difficult to know just how many of the two million people who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been afflicted with two common combat ailments, post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.) and traumatic brain injury (T.B.I.). But a new study of six years of data from the Veterans Health Administration, published this month by the Congressional Budget Office, illuminates not just the extent of the treatment that is needed, but its costs.In a sampling of nearly half a million veterans of the two wars, 21 percent had P.T.S.D., 2 percent had symptoms of T.B.I., and 5 percent had both. For a variety of reasons, it’s hard to extrapolate these rates to the entire group of those who served.
But the notable finding of the report is this: Taken together, the afflicted group’s first-year treatment costs ran four to six times as high as patients without these conditions.
snip To put the numbers in perspective, the Veterans Health Administration spent a total of $6 billion on health care expenditures for veterans of these wars from 2002 to 2010; total spending in 2010 alone for health care for veterans of all ages and all conflicts came to $48 billion. All dollar amounts are adjusted to 2011 values. read more>>>
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