It should have been funded by the money you put into taxes, via a voluntary insurance company or mutual aid network such as existed before the U.S. government cartelized the healthcare and insurance industries, or via the additional savings you could have had putting the money towards a personal savings instrument. Savings, retirement plans, and health insurance, all voluntary with no government interference whatsoever, were all the rage in the 1800s, it was just what you did, like how most people have 401K plans now.