Are the medical needs of our soldiers being met?

The forty military hospitals across the country are responsible for the medical needs of 1.35 million active-duty service members and their families. However, of the 8.2 million people whose health care was covered by the Defense Department last year, including military retirees who served more than 20 years and their families, only about 2.4 million were treated exclusively at military hospitals and clinics. And more than half of those were active-duty service people. The basic reason is that the quality of care in many military hospitals is not at the same level as at civilian hospitals.

The care is not as good for many reasons:

• Many of the hospitals are so small and the trickle of patients so thin that it compromises the ability of doctors and nurses to capably diagnose and treat serious illnesses. Two-thirds of the hospitals last year served 30 or fewer inpatients a day — less than a third as many as the typical civilian hospital. Nine served 10 or fewer.
• Many military doctors, including general surgeons, were not busy enough to keep their skills sharp.
• Most hospital supervisors are military officers, even though civilians make up almost half of the staff. As more seasoned military doctors move up to desk jobs, junior physicians sometimes end up heading clinical departments just months after completing their residencies. In 2012, fewer than half of Army hospitals were run by health care administrators.
• Continuity of management and care is lost as hospital commanders and doctors, as well as patients, constantly rotate from post to post. 
• Bigger hospitals offered better care than the smaller military hospitals.

Medical care accounts for about 10% of DOD's budget. The Pentagon would like to scale back the system but this will be difficult as it would take jobs out of some Congressional districts.