Compensating Wounded Warriors: An Analysis of Injury, Labor Market Earnings, and Disability Compensation Among Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

摘要

Nearly a decade of operational combat in Iraq and Afghanistan has focused attention on meeting the needs of military service members, especially those injured in combat, following deployment. Two recent commissions the President s Commission on Care for America s Returning Wounded Warriors (2007) and the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission (2007) have recommended fundamental changes in how DoD and the VA evaluate, treat, compensate, and otherwise support injured service members and their families. To address this continuing issue, the President directed the Secretary of Defense to examine compensation benefits available to wounded warriors, caregivers, and survivors of those fallen service members as part of the 11th QRMC. In response to a request from the 11th QRMC, RAND performed the first comprehensive, quantitative assessment of how injury sustained while deployed in support of OEF/OIF affects subsequent labor market outcomes and the extent to which retirement and disability payments received from DoD, the VA, and SSA compensate for earnings losses attributable to injury. The findings of that assessment are presented in this monograph.