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it's not available because Tricare only pays about 30 cents on the dollar for doctors fees.

Whent the "promise" was made I assume most people didn't have coverage for doctors, only major medical. When I was a kid 30 years ago my mom worked for a GP and no one had insurance for his services. Assuming that the promise made applied to all medical including dental is a stretch isn't it ?

"Whent the "promise" was made I assume most people didn't have coverage for doctors, only major medical. When I was a kid 30 years ago my mom worked for a GP and no one had insurance for his services. Assuming that the promise made applied to all medical including dental is a stretch isn't it?"

We are kind of mixing two issues. But they blur together unless you are actively following them

The first issue, is Tricare which is riddled with problems, unless you live in an area with plenty of military around, then it is a pretty good deal.
But MANY retired people using Tricare wind up paying the doctor out of pocket and then get reimbursed from Tricare for only 30-40% of the bill, because the doctors won't accept the Tricare 'assignment'.

The second issue is the one about "promised free lifetime healthcare". There is no doubt that complete and universal healthcare was promised to WWII and Korean era veterans. It's in writing, but the courts found these written promises not to be binding on the government. Plus, these veterans were given this type of healthcare from 1947 until 1995. Any reasonable person would conclude that this type of healthcare was what was promised, after all, it is what ALL retirees were getting. One could see it everytime you went to the base hospital.
Then they went through 2 rounds of base closures, and a lot of base hospitals closed their doors. To top that off, Clinton told the over 65 retirees that they couldn't even go to the open bases/hospitals for treatment anymore. One day you can go to Walter Reed or Bethesda if you have a life threatening problem, the next you are persona non grata at ANY Military Treatment Facility.
The WWII vets took this to court, and after 5 years won a favorable decision, that their rights were unconstitutionally taken away.

Where Bush garners the ire of veterans is that he let the Justice Department appeal the decision, instead of just restoring what the WWII veterans had for decades, but Clinton took away.

I'm not a WWII or Korean vet, and I have nothing personal to gain, but these men have been wronged by the last two administrations.