March 7, 2025
The Honorable Mark Warner
The Honorable Tim Kaine
The Honorable Eugene Vindman
Dear Senators Warner and Kaine and Representative Vindman,
I am writing to call your attention to an October 17, 2024, article in the Washington Post, “Senate Report: How private equity ‘gutted’ dozens of U.S. hospitals,” and how this threatens healthcare for veterans.
The article discusses a report by Senator Markey (D. MA), which reveals the devastating results for patients in hospitals owned by the for-profit firm, Steward Health Care. Steward closed half-dozen hospitals, “leaving patients health care providers without jobs,” and “death rates for conditions like heart failure at Steward hospitals increased even as they decreased nationwide.”
In addition, there were bat infestations, sewage leaks, a lack of crucial supplies, and lawsuits from unpaid vendors. A Boston Globe investigation reveals that Steward hospitals received a disproportionate number of patient safety warnings from federal officials.
This problem is not limited to Steward. In These Are the Plunderers, Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner devote a chapter to the negative impact private-equity firm have on U.S. hospitals. Morgenson and Rosner focus on Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA), one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers. The authors detail staff and equipment shortages and failures in patient safety. Morgenson and Rosner’s findings are confirmed by a 2023 multipart NBC series on HCA. The NBC series reported on roaches in operating rooms, staffing shortages, pressure to assign patients to hospice care to reduce mortality rates, and staff concerns that HCA is putting profits over patient safety. For example, a U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 2023 report cited the HCA hospital in Asheville, NC for delays in care, neglect, long waits for lab work, unapproved and expired medications, and many other failures. A June 2024,CBS report on for-profit nursing homes, which now constitute 70 percent of such facilities in the U.S., found similar issues.
This is the healthcare system that Congress is bent on pushing veterans into. Increasingly the nation’s entire healthcare system is controlled by private corporations, whose goal is profit rather than patient safety and good outcomes. Numerous studies have clearly demonstrated that VA care is equal to and often superior to private care and is more cost effective. The VA is the only entity suited to treat medical and psychological issues specific to military service, including PTSD, military sexual trauma, and exposure to toxic substances.
It is a betrayal of the nation’s promise to care for those who served to send veterans to this broken system. I call on you and your colleagues to halt and reverse the privatization of the VA Healthcare System (VHA). You know, or should know, the failings of corporate healthcare.
Anything other than preserving and strengthening the VHA is a failure to meet your responsibility to America’s veterans.
Sincerely,
James Landrith
Woodbridge, VA
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Sent via Veterans for Peace.
March 11, 2025
Dear Mr. Landrith,
Thank you for contacting me about veteran affairs. I appreciate the opportunity to hear your thoughts on this issue.
Virginia is home to thousands of veterans, with many calling the 7th District home. Veterans, active-duty members, and military families form the fabric of our community. Time and time again, they have demonstrated their dedication to serving our country and have earned our complete and total support.
As an Iraq War Veteran who served in uniform for over 25 years, I have seen firsthand the toll that service takes on our service members and their families. I care deeply about our service members and believe that these heroes deserve our strongest support. As your Representative, I will always be laser focused on fighting for veterans and working across the aisle to both improve benefits and ensure that servicemembers and their families receive those benefits in a timely and effective manner. For example, Veterans Affairs centers across the country lack sufficient mental health care providers. Congress needs to change that.
If you or a loved one needs help with casework related to the VA or any veterans benefits, please do not hesitate to contact my office at (703) 987-2180 or via Vindman.info@mail.house.gov. Not only is my team ready and eager to help, but if we uncover a systemic issue affecting many veterans and/or their families, I would like to introduce legislation to address that.
Thank you again for reaching out. Our commitment to veterans must be an ironclad. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any further concerns and questions. I look forward to hearing from you in the future!
Sincerely,
Congressman Eugene Vindman
Member of Congress
March 17, 2025
Dear Mr. Landrith:
Thank you for contacting me. Ensuring that Virginians have access to quality, affordable health care is of the utmost importance to our state and our nation, and I appreciate hearing from you.
The investments our nation has made in health care over the past decades have yielded substantial results. Americans are living longer and healthier lives, and the larger health care system has seen declines in cases and health-care costs associated with vaccine-preventable and infectious diseases. While I am encouraged by the progress we have made, I also realize that there is still room for improvement.
Many Virginians are struggling with the high costs of insurance premiums, prescription drugs, and medical treatments. Health care costs affect individuals from all walks of life, and we owe it to our community to keep looking for ways to make our health care system work better for everyone. Other nations have shown it can be done through promoting preventative care, effectively using technology, and paying our health care providers by patient outcomes.
Our work to improve quality of care should encompass service delivery and payment reforms and should also include investments in the providers delivering care. We must continue to find ways to ensure that hospitals receive the funding they need to deliver superior service. We should adequately compensate physicians for the care they provide. We also need to ensure that reforms recognize the increasingly important role that non-physician providers play in our health care system.
Finally, to maintain and improve upon the progress we have made towards increasing the health of our nation, we must continue to invest in medical research. The members of our community affected by well-known diseases, such as cancer, Long COVID, and Alzheimer’s, as well as rarer conditions, deserve our full commitment to expanding options for prevention, treatment, and support. Investment in medical research will not only benefit individuals but will also strengthen communities and contribute to our nation’s security.
Please know that as a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), I will continue working in a bipartisan manner to lower insurance premiums and ensure that our nation’s hospitals, research facilities, and federal agencies have adequate resources to carry out their missions.
Inaction is not a solution to our problems. There are many good ideas for improving our health care system, and through common ground and compromise, we can find credible paths forward. I will be sure to keep your views in mind as the Senate considers legislation affecting our health care system. Thank you again for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Tim Kaine