By Paul Sullivan In 2011, a mother in distress phoned me about her son who had just returned from the war in Iraq.

Today, the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute (VHPI) published a new report sounding the alarm over a number of misguided Congressional proposals that promise to increase healthcare access for veterans in rural areas. Entitled “The Problem of Rural Veterans Healthcare and How to Solve it,” the VHPI report warns that further privatization of the healthcare system run by the Department of Veterans of Affairs (VA) will weaken healthcare access for the 2.7 VA patients who live in rural areas. By"

By Russell Lemle, originally in The Washington Monthly In 2019, with the number of U.S. veterans dying by suicide surpassing 6,000 for the 11th consecutive year, Congress searched for fresh ideas to address the crisis.

Jay Keyser, U.S. Army Veteran   July 7, 2014 was my 79th birthday. I spent the morning in an ambulance. As ominous as that might sound, it was a blessing. I was being transferred from a not-for-profit private rehabilitation hospital to the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in West Roxbury, Massachusetts where, over the course of […]

By: Sally Covington   I want to share my story about the amazing care my partner Tom Moore received at the end of his life from the VA.  The story is, in a sense, a tale of two healthcare systems, Kaiser Permanente, a private, profit motivated system and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) a mission […]

Most Americans probably aren’t aware that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system, along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the best and biggest medical research powerhouse in the United States. Millions of veterans have benefited from VA research breakthroughs, including pioneering treatments for PTSD, Agent Orange, and prosthetics.

For years, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has painstakingly labored to track, research and address veteran suicide. Their exceptional work was dealt an unwarranted blow a month ago with the publication of an incomplete report entitled Operation Deep Dive (OpDD). The $3.9 million study from America’s Warrior Partnership (AWP) examined death data of former service members in eight states between 2014-2018.

By: Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle, Senior Policy Analysts, in The Hill • VHPI Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle push for fundamental reforms of the VA's highly flawed quality and access standards for private care.

By: Jasper Craven, Policy Fellow, in The New York Times • Jasper Craven wrote about the honorable work inside the third, largely overlooked wing of the Department of Veterans Affairs: The National Cemetery Administration

Almost weekly now, new evidence emerges about the superiority of VA healthcare when compared to the private sector.

By: St. Louis Public Radio; Source: Suzanne Gordon • VHPI Policy Fellow Suzanne Gordon spoke to St. Louis Public Radio about the impressive work by the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate care and administer vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By: Chris Serres; Source: Suzanne Gordon • The Star Tribune spoke with VHPI Policy Fellow Suzanne Gordon in its report on how the VA “has emerged as a success story in the furious race to vaccinate people against the deadly [coronavirus]."

Over the past decade, a heated argument has raged in Congress and the media over the best way to provide healthcare to the nation’s veterans.

By: Joan Cook PhD; Source: VHPI analysis • Joan Cook, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, wrote in the Federal Practitioner about VHPI's recent analysis of a groundbreaking study into the "VA advantage."

While we’ve entered a new year, the thing that still dominates our collective attention is the COVID-19 pandemic. This virulent virus has confronted many with what is an unwelcome but critical fact: what one does as an individual – like wearing a mask or social distancing – can dictate whether friends, family, and neighbors live […]

An Inside Look at the VA’s COVID-19 Response January 12, 2021 While we’ve entered a new year, the thing that still dominates our collective attention is the COVID-19 pandemic. This virulent virus has confronted many with what is an unwelcome but critical fact: what one does as an individual – like wearing a mask or […]

By: Suzanne Gordon & Jasper Craven • The Veterans Health Administration has a big role to play in the COVID-19 pandemic. But have repeated attempts to privatize the agency hindered its ability to respond? Read full article more from VHPI’s Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven at The American Prospect.

Starting June 6, the VA MISSION Act will refer many veterans out to the new Community Care Network. One of the main Wilkie / Stone talking points about this change is ‘convenience’ and the idea that more veterans will be cared for more quickly (a claim unlikely to occur given that the VA overall has the same or better wait times than the private sector).