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...
View ArticleMcCain 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...
View ArticleUnion 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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Report: VHA Care Commission Recommends Private-Sector Options
(Photo: AP/Mark Thiessen)The Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Anchorage, AlaskaAfter almost a year of meetings and hearings, the Commission on Care has finally issued its report on the...
View ArticleStudies 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...
View ArticleHill 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...
View ArticleWill 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....
View ArticleFact-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...
View ArticleVHA 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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For Once, Trump Makes the Right Cabinet Pick
(Photo: AP/Evan Vucci)David Shulkin, currently undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, leaves a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on January 9, 2017.In a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hiring Freeze Spares Some at VA, But Shortages Still Loom
(Photo: AP/Elaine Thompson)Army veteran Michael Thrun and Navy veteran Thomas Barry wait for rides after treatment at the VA Puget Sound Medical Center in Seattle on March 30, 2015.A public outcry by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
VA Whistleblowers Beware: Tweeting Under Trump is No Two-Way Street`
AP Photo/The El Paso Times,Rudy Gutierrez, FileAn Army veteran makes her way to the radiology department at the Veterans Administration clinic adjacent to William Beaumont Army Medical Center, in El...
View ArticleCongress 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...
View ArticleDespite 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...
View ArticleVHA 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...
View ArticleVeterans Face Another Round of Threats to Health-Care Networks
In September, The American Prospectreported that budget cuts at the Veterans Health Administration would have eliminated the system’s ten Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry. After protests from leading...
View ArticleVA 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...
View ArticleStudies 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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
With Shulkin Out, Veterans Need to Mobilize to Stop VA Privatization
(AP Photo/José Luis Magaña)David ShulkinOn March 28, the day after President Trump fired him, David Shulkin, the outgoing secretary of veterans affairs, took toThe New York Times to warn of the...
View ArticleTrump Administration Moves Forward on VA Privatization
Under the guise of reducing veteran suicides, the Trump administration has released a plan that could radically reshape veteran care in the United States. The stated goal is to expand mental health...
View Article
