By Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early in The American Prospect The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been suffering from continuing staffing shortages at the nation’s largest public health care system, which has hampered the ability to directly care for veterans.

By Russell Lemle, The Washington Monthly For four decades, the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs has played an indispensable watchdog role, helping to ensure that veterans receive high-quality healthcare. Its investigators have repeatedly identified deficiencies in VA patient care and recommended corrections. The Inspector General’s office’s diligence is one reason that the quality of VA’s healthcare consistently outperforms the private sector’s. However, the Insp

The Making Community Care Work for Veterans Act of 2023 has several sections that contain some useful improvements but does not go far enough in addressing problems with the Veterans Community Care Program.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long administered the most successful healthcare system in the country. As a recent summary of research yet again confirms, the quality of care delivered by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is as good as or better than the care veterans receive from VA-paid community care or the general public obtains through private care. Quite distressingly, however, the VHA is straining to maintain its workforce and programs.

By Russell Lemle and Megan McCarthy, originally in the Federal Practitioner The VA MISSION Act of 2018 expanded options for veterans to receive government-paid health care from private sector community health care practitioners.

By: Brad Dress, The Hill • The Hill spoke with Suzanne Gordon about the potentially devastating cuts to veterans' benefits.

Earlier this month, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee held an important hearing that could potentially lead to the erosion of the veterans’ healthcare system.

By Suzanne Gordon + Steve Early, for The Progressive When President Joe Biden braved Republican jeers and boos to deliver his State of the Union address in February, one of the few lines that received bipartisan applause recalled Congressional action last year on what he hailed then as the “most significant law our nation has ever passed to help millions of veterans.” Called the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, this legislation allocates $280 billion over the next decade for

Late last month, the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, in association with the American Federation of Government Employees, released a comprehensive report on the urgent struggles of thousands of VA employees, and how they threaten to impede the future of America’s best healthcare and benefits systems.

In mid-July, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (SVAC) held a hearing to discuss two pending bills that would drastically reshape the provision of private healthcare services through the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP).

On March 7th, The Federal Practitioner published an article co-authored by VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Russell Lemle and Katherine B. McGuire, Chief Advocacy Officer for the American Psychological Association Services. It’s entitled “The SHOW UP Act Threatens VA Telehealth” and we encourage all VHPI supporters to read it!

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives hurriedly passed the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act (H.R. 139), a bill that calls into question the contributions of federal employees allowed to work from home and resets telework policies to those in place in 2019.

In recent years, many Republicans have railed against overreach by the “administrative state”—which, in their breathless telling, takes the form of rulemaking by federal agencies that goes far beyond their statutory authority.

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Russell Lemle organized a multi-organizational effort to provide written testimony on how to stem the veterans suicide crisis.

The July 14th House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the private care program established through the VA MISSION Act was an occasion for more shots across the bow aimed at dismantling the VA.