Actually, cutting back on the healthcare sector in return for increased defence spending is contrary to both defence and healthcare. Because what will you need in case of war? A working healthcare sector, because any war will inevitably increase the workload of the healthcare sector, since wars are fought with bullets, bombs and other things that are quite dangerous to one’s health, not with cotton balls.

On the other hand, we shouldn’t see everything through the lens of spending, because in both the healthcare and the defence sector, you can very easily buy a whole lot of nothing for a shitload of money, thanks to corruption, bureaucracy, and corporate greed. Unfortunately, politicians seem to be too stupid (and/or corrupt) to see anything from any other side than the spending aspect. Also there are large parts of the political spectrum who very much like to cut back on anything health and social and will use any excuse they can find to justify it to the public. The finally realised need for better defence is just a welcome excuse for those people to sell cutbacks they have been wanting all along.