VA doctors warn cuts, privatization threaten veterans' healthcare [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Wed 24 Sep 2025 08.06 EDT
Last modified on Wed 24 Sep 2025 08.08 EDT
Nearly 100 doctors who have practiced at the US Department of Veterans of Affairs (VA) issued a mass letter on Wednesday raising “urgent concerns” about Trump administration policies that they said will “negatively affect the lives of all veterans”.
The letter sent to congressional leaders, VA secretary Doug Collins and the agency’s inspector general marks the first time VA physicians have spoken collectively about staffing cuts and aggressive privatization moves at the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system.
“We have witnessed these ongoing harms and can provide evidence and testimony of their impacts,” said the letter, which was signed by roughly 170 physicians, psychologists and other health workers in all.
If the trend continues, these current and former staffers said, VA “facilities may be forced to close, and veterans may be forced into costlier, often overburdened community health systems ill-equipped to meet their specialized needs”. Attorneys say the letter is protected under federal whistleblower law.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/24/veterans-administrations-doctors-trump-policies-harm-healthcare
Link to LETTER (PDF) - https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68c33d76c4de3e1fbd22be2b/68d37f78728780f23bdf60a5_Lincoln%20Declaration%209-24%20update%20final.pdf
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