Summary

The Defense Department's (DOD) medical system costs about $15 billion annually and employs about 227,000 active duty and reserve personnel. Recent legislation required DOD to determine (1) the size and the composition of the military medical system needed to support U.S. forces during a war and (2) any adjustments needed for cost-effective delivery of medical care to covered beneficiaries during peacetime. The resulting DOD study challenged the Cold War assumption that all medical personnel employed during peacetime are needed for wartime and questioned whether U.S. military medical forces should be reduced to only those needed for wartime. This testimony provides GAO's overall views on and analysis of the study.