Medical Insurance as Military Pay

     War is an environment in which the resources available to a government are allocated in a way that is most efficient to achieve victory.  This brings up the question of soldier pay.  During the crisis of an ongoing military battle, all reasonable effort should be exercised to rescue the wounded and apply necessary medicine.  However, once a wounded soldier is stabilized back home, or on a base, the question arises as to how much the conflicted country should pay out for the veteran's future medical maintenance.

Should a country set a number, such as a billion dollars of health insurance, per individual?  This obviously would soon sink the war effort.  I don't know what a reasonable number would be; however, I have thought of a philosophical system to guide the issue:

What if there was a sliding scale in an army that varied from paying military privates a basic medical insurance at the low end, and generals the most expensive policy at the high one?  This health insurance reward adds a greater incentive for soldiers to want to rise in rank.  Another way that the insurance values could get a boost is from winning medals and other military decorations.  A soldier with no battle experience would not have this, while a Medal of Honor recipient could conceivably have a multi-million dollar medical insurance plan.

One final note:  As a civilian recipient of a lot of unwanted health care, I must insist that every soldier who does not want the products and services of military medicine have that option.  So many veterans have fought and fallen into unfortunate states that it would be an outrage to deny them a way out of tortured conditions if that is what they want.

Paul Wharton
Objectivist Capitalist Medicine Promoter

Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) for being the fuel of my mind