ILN14 Day 3 – This is the Military Health System: 20-20-20, 3-3-3

Lt. Gen Douglas J Robb, Director Defense Health Agency , “This is Why” View on Flickr.com

We closed out the Innovation Learning Network (@HealthcareILN) in person meeting with our host Military Health System (@healthdotmil) at the iconic National Defense University (@NDU_EDU) at Ft. McNair in Washington, DC (of course).

As you can see from the video below, Military Health System has made great strides in the care of our defenders. It is also transitioning, like the rest of health care, to become a health oriented as well as a health care oriented system.


Colonel (Dr.) Brian Masterson, a specialist in internal medicine and psychiatry and Chair of Global Health at National Defense University presented a simple set of statistics: 20-20-20, 3-3-3

  • 20: % of GDP spent on health care in the United States
  • 20: % of youth out of high school who are fit for the military today
  • 20: % of the outcomes of health that come from health care

The delta on average between our expenditure on health care and other countries is about 12 %, with which 

  • 3: % of the GDP is spent on defense today
  • 3: % of the GDP would fund every eligible student to attend a state university
  • 3: % of the GDP to make Social Security solvent for every American alive today
  • 3: % left over

The Military Health System is nearly the size of Kaiser Permanente, at about $50 billion per year. It is good and reassuring to know that it is dreaming, as we are, for a healthier society, as we did together on this day, the 50th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” speech. (see: The Great Society at 50 | The Washington Post) There are a lot of 50-year anniversaries happening these days, what are we going to say about the 50th anniversary of this year, in the decade of the patient?

Last day always includes the official robe ceremony, which was presented to Chief Innovation Officer Rachel Foster. Thank you for the awesome collaboration and connection to an incredible group of people. Thanks a ton to Rebecca Solomon from Deloitte and Stacey Dula also from Deloitte for being part of our awesome ILNdc planning team!

Ted Eytan, MD