Cuts to Medicaid and Social Services Target Our Community — Here’s What We Can Do

I fear for wheelchair users, the larger disability community, and others. People on low incomes and millions with disabilities, including children and the elderly, will lose life-sustaining benefits through programmatic budget cuts if Congress approves them. The immediate threat to affected people of all ages would be a kind of economic starvation. The massive spending cuts proposed in the House of Representatives budget resolution would likely deplete our government-supported safety nets — Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and (SNAP) food stamps — and deprive many with disabilities of critically needed support, especially those with lower income levels. 

Since the age of 20 I have navigated my life in a wheelchair. In the years immediately following my paralysis from a plane crash, I depended on Social Security Supplemental Income and food stamps. During that time, with help from my employed wife-to-be and funds from a self-designed Social Security Plan of Self Support, I managed to earn a master’s degree while simultaneously working for minimum wage in a library, a campus graphic arts department, and eventually as a graduate teaching assistant. Since then, I’ve had teaching, small-scale farming and writing/editing careers. Now, at 80 years old, I’m still working part-time as an independent contractor, after having written articles and columns the last 25 years about adults with spinal cord injuries and the challenges we face. If I had not had the support of these vital government programs at a critical time, I would not have been able to live a modest but fulfilling life. 

But my concern now is for those who will live on after I die. 

Disabled children and adults already face life-threatening medical disparities. Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, etc. are just the latest threat. The January executive order that terminated all DEI and DEIA programs (the “A” stands for accessibility in Section 2 of the order) will harm many in minority populations, including ours, along with well-established laws protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act; the 2008 ADA Amendments Act; section 1557 of the 2010 Affordable Care Act; and Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act — all are threatened. Section 504 is already under attack by 17 attorneys general who filed suit and asked that the entirety of Section 504 be declared unconstitutional. If the suit, currently on hold, goes forward, public education and healthcare would lose critical services meant to remove disparities that negatively impact all people with disabilities.  

The DEIA order, which impacts the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, and the Equal Economic Opportunity Commission, to name a few, would effectively neuter civil rights laws government-wide, if not directly, then by drastically reducing staff.  

In addition, reducing federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research will limit funding for already depleted nonprofit organizations that advocate for and protect the rights of people with disabilities of all ages. It would also reduce funding for vitally important SCI Model Systems and Regional SCI Centers.  

What results can be expected from all these actions? Quadriplegics and elderly people would most likely lose caregivers when federally subsidized caregiving benefits dry up. More and more doctors would refuse to take Medicaid and Medicare patients. Death from hospital-borne sepsis due to poor care will increase. Disabled children will no longer be able to benefit from cutting edge research. Nor will those who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

What makes these massive cuts even more suspect is the way they are being promoted to the public through calculated appeals to selfish interests and promises of tax rebates — at a time of economic uncertainty. But those who are most vulnerable in a culture of economic uncertainty are poor, elderly and disabled people, not the wealthiest among us — who stand to profit the most from massive tax cuts.  

It falls on our media to inform the public of who will be sacrificed for the sake of the wealthiest in the United States.  

More importantly, it falls on those us who will be affected! 

We need to do everything in our power to tell our stories of how we have, or are benefitting from Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and other state and government-funded programs, whenever and wherever we can. True stories have power, and when they are magnified, they can move public opinion.  

You can tell your story directly to your representative or senator, preferably in writing. Better yet, tell it live directly at a Town Hall meeting. Call your local TV station and suggest it as a story. Tell your local newspaper. Post your story online with a plea for others to share it.  

We may not have the power of the purse, but we do have power in numbers — when we speak out. We matter! One thing is clear: We must act now. 

United Spinal Association is building a movement to protect what matters most: independence, dignity, and the right to live life on our own terms. Two important things you can do now:  

• Tell your representative to save Medicaid by opposing any cuts to this vital service. Go to our action alert page and there’s a customizable pre-written message you can send directly to your Members of Congress with one click. 

• Support our new Advocacy Impact Fund, which provides training for wheelchair users to become powerful advocates for their own rights and is helping to build a nationwide network of 5,000 grassroots advocates.