
Jessica L. Adler
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About Jessica
Adler researches and teaches about the history of health care, war and society, and incarceration in the modern United States. Her first book, Burdens of War: Creating the United States Veterans Health System, is about the World War I-era origins of the nation’s largest integrated health care system. She is currently working on projects examining the history of medical services in U.S. prisons, and late twentieth century transformations in the veterans’ health program.
Contributions
The Evolution of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
In the News
Publications
Explores conditions undergirding the establishment of the first Vet Centers and the program’s broader implications, as well as the general issue of why public health systems change over time. Highlights dynamics of how the VA gradually “deinstitutionalized” in the mid-twentieth century, it focuses on trends related to war and health, notions of federal responsibility, health activism and rights of people from marginalized groups, and connections between political ideology and medical diagnoses and treatment.
Examines rates of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations among incarcerated people in Florida during a period when health care management in the state’s prisons underwent transitions.
Highlights research showing that demands on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system have recently escalated, and that VA patients who are low-income, live in rural areas, and lack other sources of coverage get a relatively high percentage of their care from the VA. I propose that the nature and level of demands on the system be thoughtfully considered during policy debates about the VA's challenges.
Discusses the origins and evolution of the U.S. veterans’ health system – now the nation’s largest integrated health care system. It traces changing expectations and perceptions of medical services and veterans’ benefits, and how politics and social circumstances shaped the structure, implementation, and experience of a federal health program.
Examine how African American soldiers and veterans experienced and shaped federally sponsored health care during and after World War I.