Home > Christopher Reeve and disability rights
By Gene Clancy
Film star and disabled-rights activist Christopher Reeve died Oct. 11 at age 52. His death highlighted not only his substantial contributions to the cause of disability rights, but the plight of disabled people generally. It also underlined the distorted priorities and policies of the U.S. government and the health-care system here.
Reeve died of cardiac failure brought on by a raging infection that had spread from a pressure sore, a common condition of many people with disabilities. The death of someone who, as a film star and director, had resources and medical care not available to the vast majority of people highlights the fragility of life for many of the severely disabled.
To his credit, Reeve had used his public persona since his disabling accident to advocate for a number of progressive causes. Right-wing forces continue to oppose many of these causes, which include stem cell research and insurance reform.
Embryonic stem cell research holds great promise not only to people with disabilities but for medicine in general. The goal is to replace injured or damaged cells with stem cells from embryos. For many with damaged spinal or central nervous systems, such research represents one of the few hopes of recovery.
Nevertheless, President George W. Bush has restricted such research to those stem cell "lines" created before Aug. 9, 2001. This alone greatly limits research. Many right wingers would like to curtail stem cell research altogether.
Reeve also urged greater spending by the insurance companies on rehabilitative therapies and technology for those with disabilities. These steps would not only improve health, but increase independence for disabled people and reduce overall costs.
Reeve’s own care cost in excess of $500,000 a year. Though this was covered by several policies, it still strained his considerable financial resources.
As Reeve said in 1998, "Most people don’t have that luxury."
Of course, the big insurance companies, looking to maximize profits, try hard to limit spending for the disabled even more, regardless of their income. In addition to their struggles with their disabilities and discrimination, people with disabilities spend much effort and time just getting insurance coverage.
Billions wasted
The $500,000 mentioned above might make it seem that the cost of adequate health care for those with disabilities is prohibitive. But this ignores a number of factors, most of which have little to do with disabilities themselves.
Most of the money spent for the disabled is for sheer survival. According to a study done in 1988, just before passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act:
"Almost two-thirds of PWDs [persons with disabilities] did not go to a movie last year; three-fourths did not see a live music performance; two-thirds no sporting event; 17 percent never eat in restaurants; 13 percent never shop in grocery stores. Forty percent of PWDs did not finish high school.
"Thirty-six percent of PWDs are dependent on government support. Another 25 percent get no support from government yet do not work. Sixty percent of government support receivers are the primary wage earners in their family.
"PWDs are subject to widespread and severe discrimination; extremely disadvantaged at tremendous economic cost [to the country as a whole]." (ADA Law. Robert Mauro, rmauro@ delphi.com)
There are nearly 45 million people with disabilities in the United States—almost one in six people. Nearly one-third of these are severely disabled according to ADA criteria.
Most of those with disabilities live in poverty. Three-quarters of those with severe disabilities are unemployed. (Disabilities Statistics Archive)
Most people with disabilities who are between ages 15 and 64 want to work. But getting a job is not easy.
According to one report, a qualified person with one or more disabilities has a one in 100 chance of getting a job when compared with an able-bodied person with similar qualifications.
The chance of a Black woman with a disability being unemployed is over 90 percent. Ninety-seven percent of all disabled women never earn more than $10,000 a year. (U.S. Depart ment of Labor)
An analysis of more than 10,000 disabled employees showed that 31 percent of their hiring required no added cost for special training or facilities. Fifty percent cost under $50 and 69 percent cost less than $500. Only 1 percent cost over $5,000. Studies show that building a new facility that is accessible adds only 0.5 percent to the building’s cost. (Job Accom modation Network)
Independence at stake
Not only the loss of productivity, amounting to billions of dollars, is at stake. Lobbyists for the nursing-home industry have influenced laws so that pubic funds favor nursing homes over alternative and less expensive programs that allow disabled people to be independent.
Some 100,000 people die every year of decubiti ulcers—bedsores, which caused Chris Reeve’s death. Most live in understaffed nursing homes, many of which are for-profit organizations.
Disabled, you are 25 times more likely to spend a piece of your life in a nursing home. In a long-term study of quadriplegics, they lived for an average of 15 years when independent—but for only 18 months at a nursing home. (Mauro, ADA Law)
Recently, thousands of young men and women have been added to the ranks of people with disabilities because of the U.S. war of conquest in Iraq. Many of these are truly life-changing injuries: loss of limbs, paralysis, blindness. A large number have suffered irreparable psychological trauma from their combat experiences, and from being forced into the role of colonial occupier.
These disabled veterans have returned to the United States to face cutbacks in veterans’ benefits and reduced spending for people with disabilities and health care generally. At the same time, over $120 billion has been spent on the war in Iraq, with no end in sight.
A small portion of this amount could fully fund the programs for which Christopher Reeve and thousands of disabled activists across the country have fought so hard.
People with disabilities and progressive people everywhere must redouble our efforts to achieve justice, end discrimination, and create a health-care system that serves people’s needs, not profits.