Military Health and Health Care

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As a large employer in the United States, the Department of Defense faces significant challenges ensuring that all members of the military, as well as their families, receive appropriate health care for everything from general health and well-being to specialized clinical care for deployment related injuries such as amputations, chemically induced illnesses, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Combining its expertise in health and defense policy, RAND examines policy issues surrounding military medical care needs and the systems intended to meet them.

Commentary
Addressing the Shortage of Behavioral Health Clinicians: Lessons from the Military Health System
Access to behavioral health services is one of the top challenges for the U.S. health care system, due in part to a shortage of licensed mental health providers. One potential solution to expanding the behavioral health workforce can be found in the U.S. military.
May 23, 2022
Commentary
How the Dobbs v. Jackson Ruling Could Affect U.S. National Security
Women are an integral part of the U.S. military and DoD civilian workforce. Limiting their access to legal abortion services will affect their health and could decrease force readiness. It could also raise health care, child care, and education costs, and affect recruitment and retention.
Sep 13, 2022

Explore Military Health and Health Care

Commentary
Improving Behavioral Health Care in the Military Health System
What can be done to ensure service members have timely and equitable access to high-quality behavioral health care?
Nov 16, 2023
Report
The Road to Reintegration: Status and Continuing Support of the U.S. Air Force's Wounded, Ill, and Injured
How do wounded, injured, or ill airmen feel about their medical and nonmedical care and the services provided by the U.S. Air Force? The authors of this report examine the quality of support provided to those who are wounded, ill, or injured.
Nov 1, 2023
Report
Virtual Behavioral Health for Army Soldiers: Soldier Perspectives and Patterns of Treatment
The authors examined trends in the use of virtual behavioral health (VBH) care for U.S. Army soldiers and their spouses from prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic through March 2022 and surveyed soldiers about their perceptions of VBH care.
Sep 19, 2023
Report
Using Quality Measures and Measurement-Based Care to Improve Behavioral Health Care for Veterans and Service Members
Using quality measures and measurement-based care can help community-based organizations that provide behavioral health (BH) care to veterans and service members ensure that their BH care is high-quality and effective.
Sep 12, 2023
Commentary
Potential Changes to Veterans' Benefits Under the Major Richard Star Act: Veterans' Issues in Focus
The Major Richard Star Act would drop the “offset” that reduces retirement pay for some disabled veterans. If it is signed into law, what could change for veterans’ benefits, and how many veterans would see an increase in their compensation?
Aug 31, 2023
Research Brief
Military Academy Students Can Now Retain Parental Rights: Department of Defense Options for Managing the Change
As of 2023, DoD allows enrolled cadets and midshipmen to retain parental rights. This brief explores potential DoD policy changes that could help cadet and midshipman parents care for their children, succeed in school, and become exemplary officers.
Aug 22, 2023
Report
Ensuring Parental Rights of Military Service Academy Cadets and Midshipmen: Policy and Cost Implications
This report characterizes legal, policy, practice, and cost implications of U.S. Department of Defense options to comply with a new congressional requirement allowing service academy cadets and midshipmen who become parents to retain parental rights.
Aug 22, 2023
Blog
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Neurodiversity, Russia's 'Forever War': RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on public reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, neurodiversity and national security, Ukraine's path to victory, and more.
Jul 28, 2023
Report
Improving Pain Care for Service Members: Administrator, Provider, and Patient Perspectives on Treatment, Policies, and Opportunities for Change
Acute and chronic pain are common among service members and impact individual health and force readiness. Interviews with Military Health System staff and service member patients provide perspectives on ways to improve pain care.
Jul 26, 2023
Research Brief
Delivering Exceptional Pain Care to Service Members
Pain is the leading cause of disability among active-duty service members. How can the Military Health System improve its care, including nonpharmacologic treatment, for those with pain conditions?
Jul 26, 2023
Report
Review of Reserve Component Activation Data Quality
In this report, the authors quantify the frequency of errors in reserve component (RC) activation data, discuss the potential sources of each type of error, and estimate the potential impact of these errors on RC member benefits.
Jul 25, 2023
Report
Novel Methods to Assess the Military's Evolving Prevention Capabilities: Development and Pilot Test of the On-Site Installation Evaluation Process
This report describes the development, pilot test, and validity testing of a set of prevention capability metrics to improve the deterrence of sexual assault, sexual harassment, suicide, and domestic violence among military service members.
Jun 28, 2023
Report
Toward a Unified Multiscale Computational Model of the Human Body's Immediate Responses to Blast-Related Trauma: Proceedings and Expert Findings from a U.S. Department of Defense International State-of-the-Science Meeting
These proceedings describe the tenth U.S. Department of Defense International State-of-the-Science Meeting on Blast Injury Research, where experts discussed innovations in multiscale modeling of the human body's response to blast-related trauma.
Jun 13, 2023
Blog
Extremist Beliefs Among Veterans, Space Traffic, Teacher Well-Being: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on whether extremist beliefs are more prevalent among veterans, why it's time to manage traffic in outer space, crises facing the Russian military, and more.
Jun 9, 2023
Commentary
The Russian Military's Looming Personnel Crises of Retention and Veteran Mental Heath
Russia's looming troop-retention and veteran-treatment problems are already visible on the horizon, even though they have been delayed by policy. By invading Ukraine, Russia has created a wave of severe trauma that will soon crash over its own country.
Jun 1, 2023
Report
Examining New Approaches for Implementing Vaccine Mandates Within the Department of Defense: How Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Could Improve Future Vaccination Campaigns
The authors examine how the Department of Defense (DoD) COVID-19 vaccination program was implemented, determine how previous DoD vaccination programs influenced those decisions, and identify opportunities to strengthen DoD's vaccination program.
May 30, 2023
Research Brief
Domestic Abuse Prevention and Outreach Approaches for the Military Community
This study focused on identifying strategies to help prevent domestic abuse among service members and their spouses or partners before it occurs and strategies for outreach to high-risk groups that could be effective in the military environment.
May 16, 2023
Report
Preventing Domestic Abuse in the U.S. Armed Forces
Domestic abuse has severe consequences for service members, their families and, potentially, unit readiness. What strategies could help prevent domestic abuse before it occurs and help the military with communication to reach individuals who might have risk factors for domestic abuse?
May 16, 2023
Blog
RAND Turns 75: A Look Through the Decades At World-Changing Research
From anticipating the Space Age in the 1940s to studying gun policy and COVID-19 responses in the 2020s, RAND is celebrating 75 years of research that has made a difference.
May 8, 2023
Report
Supporting the U.S. Space Force Single-Component Structure: Impediments for Members Transitioning Between Full-Time and Part-Time Participation
U.S. Space Force leadership envisions a service in which Guardians transition easily between full- and part-time service. Five impediments discussed in this report make it unnecessarily difficult to make these transitions between types of service.
May 1, 2023