Medical and dental expenses and insurance costs are a priority for several people, but what does one get if you join the military? If the recruiter promises free health look afterlife, it isn't the entire truth. Up until the mid-1980s, recruiters touted the "free health look afterlife" benefits of military service. Your medical aid was covered while on active duty and benefits extended into retirement. Any military retiree and their immediate family could get care (space available) at any military medical facility. That law hasn't really changed. What has changed is that the space availability of health care. As a result of downsizing, there are fewer military hospitals within us than existed some time past. Slowly, but steadily, military retirees, their families, and lots of active duty relations were forced to hunt medical aid off-base, with only partial reimbursement from a program called CHAMPUS (Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services).