In my humble and very unpopular opinion, there should be very limited VA treatment for non-service connected conditions. God bless our vets but when I enlisted I don't recall being promised healthcare for the rest of my life unless I managed to successfully retire (retirees don't even actually get it for life. They move them to Medicare when they reach that age) or sustained some sort of injury/condition as a result of my service. Non-service connected treatment should be reserved for extreme cases involving indigent veterans and/or very limited space available programs.
The VA's primary mission should be caring for those who were somehow made less than whole as a result of their service to our country. Right now that script is flipped and they treat more non-service connected patients each year than they do service connected.
Imagine how much care would be improved for our war/service injured brothers if all of those resources were spent on them? It would be amazing.
Fixing the VA, and funding for it, would be much easier if we eliminated that mission creep.
The VA does not provide free healthcare for every veteran. They will offer discounted services on some issues, and if you have additional insurance, they will bill them. Some veterans are not eligible at all for non-serviced related health care because of their income level.
Priority 3,4,& 5, Non-service connected, and service connected with less than 40% disability have to make copay's on pharmaceuticals. Sometimes walmart's drug program is cheaper than the VA for certain drugs.
It's not widespread free healthcare because you're a Veteran. Far from it.