GAO provided information on veterans that used Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) medical centers during 1991, focusing on their: (1) income; (2) age; (3) marital status; (4) usage rates; (5) disability and employment status; and (6) family size.

GAO found that: (1) of the 2.2 million veterans that used VA medical centers in 1991, two-thirds had family incomes under $20,000; (2) lower income veterans tended to be nonservice-connected, unmarried, younger veterans; (3) service-connected veterans with disability ratings between 10 percent and 40 percent had the highest incomes; (4) both service- and nonservice-connected veterans received the majority of their incomes through employment or retirement benefits; (5) of the veterans whose incomes were under $20,000, 85 percent were unmarried; (6) 45 percent of the veterans with incomes under $10,000 were under age 65; (7) 555,000 veterans used VA inpatient services and nearly all veterans used VA outpatient services; (8) inpatient and outpatient usage rates did not vary for veterans of comparable income levels; (9) 40 percent of the veterans that used VA outpatient services were employed, 46 percent were married, 60 percent had a spouse who was employed, and the majority had higher incomes than single employed veterans; (10) 45 percent of the veterans that used VA medical centers in 1991 were retired; and (11) 16 percent of the veterans had dependents, 22 percent were single, and the majority of veterans with dependents had higher incomes than those veterans without dependents.