I am retired Navy (20 years). I just had open heart surgery, a 2.5 month stay in the hospital, a defibrillator implanted, major surgery due to an infection related to the cardiac surgery, etc. etc. As far as I can tell between Medicare and Tricare For Life I will not pay a dime for my treatment. I actually feel guilty about it. Even before I had Medicare my catastrophic cap was $3000.
About 6 years ago my lifetime best friend told me that the best thing that ever happened to him was me tricking him into going into the army with me during the Vietnam war, at the time of the phone conversation he was getting his dialysis treatments from the VA for free, he has since died.