Trump’s new appointee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs will likely do little to oppose the privatization of veterans’ health care.
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
Studies Show Private-Sector Providers Are Not Ready to Care for Veterans
As Congress moves ahead with plans to outsource more and more veteran health care to the private sector, three high-profile studies should urge lawmakers to pump the brakes. The studies, published in recent weeks by RAND Corporation, Federal Practitioner, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, spotlight serious flaws in private-sector veterans’ care […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
VA Officials Continue to Discuss Proposed Health-Care Changes Out of Public View
In a now familiar pattern, leading veterans organizations are up in arms again over the latest revelations about White House plans for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)—plans that were concocted behind closed doors. Last week, the Associated Press reported that Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin and other Trump officials have been quietly discussing ways […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Veterans Face Another Round of Threats to Health-Care Networks
In September, The American Prospect reported that budget cuts at the Veterans Health Administration would have eliminated the system’s ten Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry. After protests from leading patient safety experts and members of Congress, the centers were saved. But late last month, brand new threats emerged that could jeopardize the VHA’s ability to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
VHA Budget Cuts Threaten Veteran Safety
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is considering budget cuts that could jeopardize patient safety in the nation’s largest health-care system. On the chopping block are ten VA Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry (PSCIs), facilities that have long pioneered innovations to reduce injury, addiction, and suicide that have impacted patients far beyond the VA system. […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Despite Assurances, VA Secretary Pushes Toward Privatization
Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, David Shulkin, has pledged not to privatize the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). He understands, he says, that the VHA’s ability to provide care that, as studies document, is superior to those in the private sector is because veterans are treated in an integrated system that meets all their […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Congress Determined To Keep Private Sector In Vets’ Heath Care
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill mulling legislation to extend a program that lets veterans seek health care in the private sector have revived their longstanding complaints about long wait times for care at the Veterans Health Administration facilities. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Dr. Baligh Yehia, the agency’s assistant under secretary, appeared before the House […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
VA Whistleblowers Beware: Tweeting Under Trump is No Two-Way Street`
A GOP bid to muzzle federal workers at the Veterans Health Administration will directly harm patients.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Hiring Freeze Spares Some at VA, But Shortages Still Loom
The Veterans Health Administration faces a staffing crisis, despite exemptions to President Trump’s recent federal hiring freeze.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
For Once, Trump Makes the Right Cabinet Pick
Trump’s pick to head the VA is actually someone who is both qualified and committed to the department’s mission.