Dear BJ1,
Healthcare is unaffordable, as it stands now. That includes all the insurance companies paying off the individual State leges, to get their own versions of monopolized healthcare through the State houses.
Now, veterans’ healthcare has been part of the federal government, ever since Lincoln started the ball rolling. If you believe that military veterans, and those on current active duty, and those medically retired from service due to incurred injuries ‘as part of their duty’, MUST PAY THEIR OWN WAY ... I suggest you stop inhaling whatever that is you are inhaling (other than air), and reassess your judgment.
Veterans healthcare from one point of view is just another govt program. You can get coverage for problems that have nothing to do with your time in service. Get mad at me or not. I’m just noting how it works. So all the problems associated with getting old, like heart disease or cancer could be paid by the govt if you were a veteran. Even if that was in peace time. And my original point was, the govt pays lower rates than private insurance.
Maybe that’s one of the things that have always been (medical coverage for illness/injury outside of military service), I really don’t know. But I will hazard a guess that back in Lincoln’s day the program wasn’t set up that way.