Cost Of Caring For Post-9/11 War Veterans Could Reach $2.5 Trillion By 2050—Report

The total cost of caring for veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq could reach $2.5 trillion by 2050, according to a new report.

Providing benefits and medical care to veterans will be the biggest single long-term cost of the post-9/11 wars, Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School, wrote in the report for the Costs of War project.

"Although for the U.S., fighting in Afghanistan may be over, the cost of caring for the veterans have barely started," Bilmes told Newsweek. "And we haven't reckoned yet with that long-term cost ahead."

Her latest estimate that the cost of veteran care could reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 is around double her previous projections made in 2011 and 2013, but she says she made "very conservative" assumptions in her research.