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Military Health Care provides medical care on military bases to current armed forces members and their dependents. Medical care from the VA is available to honorably discharged veterans who either have a service connected illness, injury, or disability, or whose incomes are near or below poverty. The Field Representative's Manual for 1997-2003 provided the following definition for this first set of military health care programs: "Military health care/VA refers to health care available to active duty personnel and their dependents; in addition, the VA provides medical assistance to veterans of the Armed Forces, particularly those with service-connected ailments."

The Civilian Health and Medical Program Uniform Service of the Department of Defense (CHAMPUS) is a health care benefits program that provides in-patient and out-patient care from civilian sources and Military Treatment Facilities, on a cost sharing basis. In the late 1990s, a managed care approach was phased in, under the name TRICARE. Retired members of the military are eligible for such coverage, as are the dependents of active-duty, retired, and deceased military.

The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) is a health benefits program in which the Department of Veterans Affairs shares the cost of health care services and supplies with eligible beneficiaries. Persons eligible for TRICARE/CHAMPUS are not eligible for CHAMPVA coverage. Persons potentially eligible for CHAMPVA coverage are: the spouse or child of a veteran who has been rated permanently and totally disabled for a service-connected disability by the VA; the surviving spouse or child of a veteran who died from a VA-rated service connected disability; the surviving spouse or child of a veteran who was at the time of death rated permanently and totally disabled; or the surviving spouse or child of a military member who died in the line of duty.

The Field Representative's Manual provided two definitions for this second set of military health care programs. For 1997-2000, the Manual stated, "CHAMPUS (Comprehensive Health and Medical Plan for the Uniformed Services) provides health care in private facilities for dependents of military personnel on active duty or retired for reasons other than disability. TRICARE is the 'managed care' version of CHAMPUS. CHAMP-VA (Comprehensive Health and Medical Plan of the Veterans Administration) provides health care for the spouse, dependents, or survivors of a veteran who has a total, permanent service-connected disability." The definition in the Manual for 2001 was more extensive:

This might be shown, for example, by a mismatch between the verbatim name of an insurance plan and the type of insurance coverage the person selected from the categories on the card.

In addition to HIMILITE, IPUMS NHIS contains the following recoded insurance variables: HIHSE (Covered by Indian Health Service: Recode); HIPRIVATEE (Covered by private health insurance: Recode); HICHIPE (Covered by Children's Health Insurance Program: Recode); HIMCAIDE (Covered by Medicaid: Recode); HIMCAREE (Covered by Medicare: Recode); HISTATEE (Covered by other state-sponsored health plan: Recode); and HIOTHGOVE (Covered by other government program: Recode).