For those who are interested...
<begin quote>
The Department of Defense (DoD) faces a growing burden in providing
peacetime health care for military personnel, retirees, and their
dependents and survivors--who all together number over 8 million. Adjusted
for the overall rate of inflation in the U.S. economy, the department's
annual spending on medical care almost doubled from 1988 to 2003, rising
from $14.6 billion to $27.2 billion. Furthermore, because DoD cut the size
of the active-duty force by 38 percent over that same period, medical
spending per active-duty service member nearly tripled, rising from $6,600
to $19,600.(1) Medical spending rose from one-quarter to more than
one-half of the level of cash compensation (defined as basic pay, the
housing allowance, and the subsistence allowance), and it is likely to
continue to increase.
<end quote>
I've also been looking to see what other kinds of "compensation" there
might be involved and thus far have identified
"Imminent danger pay"
"Family separation pay"
http://armedforcescareers.com/articles/article12.html gives rough numbers
involving recruitment costs for those who are in the same
nation/continent/region for various of the different services. At roughly
1% of the entire DoD's budget for that year (1999) - if extrapolated to a
Traveller universe, might prove a useful guide for recruitment costs for
those on the same world kind of thing. Add in the transporation cost
(would transportation costs be included in Recruitment costs or in another
budget entirely?) and subsector armies might cost more per troopie in
recruitment costs than a mere 1% might imply.
More as I dig further. I will at least try to give URL's for those sites
I visit for others to read at their pleasure :)