[citation needed] The Civil War saw improvements in medical science, communications and transportation that made centralized casualty collection and treatment more practical.

Changes in tax law had induced business and industry to begin offering a health care benefit as an employment incentive.

[6] In the late 1980s, because of escalating costs, claims paperwork demands and general beneficiary dissatisfaction, DOD launched a series of demonstration projects.

Under a program known as the CHAMPUS Reform Initiative (CRI), a contractor provided both health care and administrative-related services, including claims processing.

Beneficiaries under CRI were offered three choices: a health maintenance organization-like option called CHAMPUS Prime that required enrollment and offered better benefits and low-cost shares, a preferred provider organization-like option called CHAMPUS Extra that required use of network providers in exchange for lower cost shares, and the standard CHAMPUS option that continued the freedom of choice in selecting providers and higher cost shares and deductibles.

The report also found that: The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, has provisions intended to make it easier for uninsured veterans to obtain coverage.

Several bills have been proposed since the PPACA was enacted in 2010, including the most recent S. 358, "Access to Contraception for Women Servicemembers and Dependents Act of 2015"[11] sponsored by Senior Senator from New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen.

Under most current Tricare plans (with the exception of Prime), the health benefit is not considered "insurance" and does not cover women's contraceptives at 100% with no cost-sharing, deductibles, or co-payments.

[12] Female military servicemembers and female dependents of servicemembers continue to pay out of pocket for contraceptive services they receive at civilian doctor's offices under plans such as Tricare Standard, where the services are not rendered at a Military Treatment Facility by DoD doctors or contractors.