Trump’s pick to head the VA is actually someone who is both qualified and committed to the department’s mission.
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 inMoney, Politics, and Power
VHA Support for Nurse Practitioners Draws Fire from Medical Leaders
The Veterans Health Administration has weighed in on a controversy that has embroiled medicine and nursing for the last 50 years: whether advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) can operate without direct physician supervision. On December 14, the VHA amended its medical regulations to “permit full practice authority” to many of the system’s nurse practitioners, a […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Fact-Checking Fact-Checkers on Privatizing Vets’ Health Care
In the debate over the future of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), no concept has attracted more controversy than “privatization.” Since wholesale privatization of the VHA is deeply unpopular among veterans and their advocacy organizations, groups like the Koch brothers-funded Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) argue that they do not support “privatization” of the VHA. […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Will Trump Deliver for Veterans?
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump repeated one key promise: to “Make America Great Again” by increasing the country’s military might and supporting its 24 million military veterans. After all, he promised to raise money for veterans and said he donated a million dollars out of his own pocket to veterans’ charities. But Trump […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Hill Hearing Spells Bad News for Veterans
Not a single veterans service organization was asked to speak last week at the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s hearing on the final recommendations of the VA Commission on Care, though such groups represent millions of former military personnel. Also noticeably absent from the witness list was Vietnam veteran Michael Blecker, executive director of the San […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Studies Show Veterans Health Care Improving
When the House Veterans Affairs Committee holds a hearing on September 7 to assess the future of the Veterans Health Administration, federal lawmakers would do well to consider recent reports that challenge the continual drumbeat of negative and often unfair coverage and congressional criticism of the VHA. One report, from the RAND Corporation, said that […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report: VHA Care Commission Recommends Private-Sector Options
As conservatives and congressional Republicans seek to dismantle the Veterans Health Administration, members of the commission called for giving veterans more private-sector options.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Union Conducts Nationwide Anti-VHA Privatization Protests
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest labor union representing federal and District of Columbia government workers, announced Tuesday that about 40 anti-VHA privatization rallies will be held nationwide. The move comes as the VA Commission on Care, the congressionally-mandated body tasked with making recommendations about the future of Veterans Health Administration, closes […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
McCain Pulls a Bait-and-Switch on Vets
Almost as soon as Senator John McCain had finished working with Senator Bernie Sanders to craft the veterans’ health-care bill now known as the Choice Act in 2014, the Arizona Republican set out to renege on his promise that Choice would be temporary, and began floating plans to make it permanent. Part of the Choice […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Hidden Irony of GOP Outrage over the VA Secretary’s Disney Comparison
Poor VA Secretary Bob McDonald. Neither he nor the Veterans Health Administration he oversees can ever catch a break. On May 23, a reporter questioned McDonald about the VHA’s tracking of patient appointment times around the country. McDonald’s predecessor was forced to quit over allegations of appointment delays and a cover-up at a Phoenix VHA […]
