The VA rigorously trains staff to de-escalate disruptive behavior from veterans. The private sector does not.
Suzanne Gordon
Suzanne Gordon is a senior policy analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, as well as a journalist and co-editor of a Cornell University Press series on health care work and policy issues. Her latest book, co-authored with Steve Early and Jasper Craven, is Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs (Duke University Press). She has won a Special Recognition Award from Disabled American Veterans for her writing on veterans’ health issues, much of which has appeared in The American Prospect. Her website is www.suzannegordon.com.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
VA Rolls Out Risky Consolidation Scheme
The proposal to reorganize the Veterans Health Administration would centralize power at the top and cause a multitude of problems, critics argue.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
VA Employees in Shock Over Alex Pretti’s Death, Administration Response
VA Secretary Doug Collins has not sent a personal statement to the staff about the killing of Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Best of 2025: Suzanne Gordon
Our veterans affairs reporter looks back on the year.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Another Mass Staffing Purge at the VA
Up to 37,000 positions may be dropped, with the VA transformed into a facilitator for outsourcing, sources tell the Prospect.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Trump Is Coming for Veterans’ Disability Benefits
The veterans disability system has traditionally been a sacred cow for politicians of all stripes. Now, as part of the conservative war on the Department of Veterans Affairs, the administration is falsely alleging that many former soldiers are cheating the system.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
How VA Cuts Damage Women Veterans
The failure of Congress to require the same training, screenings, and military cultural competency tools and skills for both VA and private sector providers could cost women veterans their lives.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
States Can Protect Public Health When the Feds Do Nothing
Lessons from California and AIDS
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Illusion of Choice
Republicans say that VA patients can get equivalent private-sector care anywhere in the U.S. Here’s a 50-state reality check.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Defending VA Veterans Health Care on D-Day
Thousands of veterans mobilize to oppose the gutting of direct care and the move toward privatization.