Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article makes plain a pretty major difference between disabled people, including autistic people, and the general population.
Most people don't need to make use of health care frequently. Maybe you go in for your yearly checkup, or once in a while for an infection or the occasional serious illness. But mostly, it's not something you worry about. As such, when people talk about health care, it's sort of a shrug "yeah, that's a good thing to have" kind of issue.
Meanwhile, in the world of disability... It's not uncommon to have complex medical needs. Monthly, or even several times a month visits to doctors and specialists can be a regular occurrence. Particularly when trying to iron out specific issues with stuff other people take for granted, like sleeping. Even monitoring known issues can take that much time.
Let's take a fairly simple case: me. This particular human has ASD, anxiety, mild depression, sleep difficulties, and heightened nutritional requirements. They are able to provide their own transport and live independently. However, the cost of being stable enough to do so includes biweekly visits to their doctor and therapist, who is also their supplier for good quality vitamins. It also includes once or twice a year trips to their primary care physician for blood tests, above and beyond the typical checkup.
Without these supports, I stop being able to interact with people much, if at all. Which would make it hard to hold a job, do grocery shopping, feed myself, pay bills, etc.
I am, honestly, more disabled socially than I am physically. I have yet to develop diabetes, and I don't have epilepsy or much by way of physical disabilities. There are many in the disability community, and even in the autism community, that can't say the same.
For all of us, though, take away those supports, and we can no longer be part of society. Health care is not a "yeah, that's good to have" thing, it's a "I need this or I will die" for some of us. For others of us, it's "I need this or I can't function." Regardless, it is truly a need, not a "eh, I could do without this for a few years and probably be fine."
Take away healthcare, and you take away our ability to participate in humanity.
So yeah, people with disabilities put a lot more importance on health care. We consider it a fundamental right, because it needs to be for us. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights includes medical care and social services, as well as the right to security regardless of disability. So I guess we're not alone in considering it an important factor in human life.
It's a shame that here, in the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world, that many of these fundamental human rights do not exist. Of all the nations in the world, you would think the one with the most resources could manage it. But autistic people and others with disabilities are systemically ignored by politicians, as this study shows.
Even so, universal healthcare would benefit all of us. Not just because it would allow all people with disabilities to live better lives. But because most people, in the course of their life, will become disabled. Whether that's by a traffic accident or simply by age taking its toll, what benefits people with disabilities will benefit everyone.
Especially because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And the ounce of prevention is cheaper than the pound of cure.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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