Number: RL32961
Title: Veterans' Health Care Issues in the 109th Congress
Authors: Sidath Viranga Panangala, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: This report provides an overview of major issues facing veterans' health care during the 109th Congress. The report's primary focus is on veterans and not military retirees. While any person who has served in the armed forces of the United States is regarded as a veteran, a military retiree is someone who has completed a full active duty military career (almost always at least 20 years of service), or who is disabled in the line of military duty and meets certain length of service and extent of disability criteria, and who is eligible for retired pay and a broad range of nonmonetary benefits from the Department of Defense (DOD) after retirement. A veteran is someone who has served in the armed forces (in most, but not all, cases for a few years in early adulthood), but may not have either sufficient service or disability to be entitled to post-service retired pay and nonmonetary benefits from DOD. Generally, all military retirees are veterans, but all veterans are not military retirees.
Pages: 52
Date: October 26, 2006