Health Insurance
Debtors’ Prison Waiting Room: Insurance Preauthorization in the Era of Step-Therapy
I get that millions of people in the United States have grown a dislike for health insurance companies. After all, as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency “dedicated to making sure you are treated fairly …
Here’s Why Student Loan Debt is a Disability Rights Issue
When Cara Liebowitz graduated from the City University of New York School of Professional Studies in 2016 with her MA in Disability Studies, she was already on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) so she found it surprisingly easy to have her …
Sex Work is a Disability Issue. So Why Doesn’t the Disability Community Recognize That?
Sex workers face enormous risks of violence both from the police and from clients, and they are about to face more.
How Proposed Changes to Public Charge Will Make It Hard to Immigrate with a Disability
Immigration is already an expensive, difficult process for anyone—but it might soon become even harder for immigrants with disabilities. In October 2018, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule change to existing laws surrounding immigration known as public charge.…
Why We All Need to Fight for the Rights of Transgender Disabled People
It’s a difficult time to be disabled in America. We are stretched thin, fighting for our lives on multiple fronts. And when your own house is on fire, it’s understandable to feel that you lack the resources to fight for…
For Disabled People, the Path to Employment is Still a Maze
Luck, an unusually high tolerance for throwing myself into the disquieting unknown, and a measure of family privilege have allowed me to forge a path through the working world that is best described as an erratic squiggle. A long arch…
In Appalachia, Disability Stigma Has Dangerous Effects
My mother-in-law tried to get Travis (not his real name) on disability. But it was complicated. Not just the process of navigating the bureaucracy around the application—another part of her problem was that being “on disability” in East Tennessee is…
Doctors Need to Believe People Who Are Disabled and Undiagnosed
When you’re disabled, people expect your story to follow a predictable trajectory: you experience a symptom (or a litany of symptoms), you see doctors and specialists, tests are run, and at some point, you receive a diagnosis. Though it might…