Abled progressives interested in nationalizing healthcare: there are some important cautions from disability history that are important to keep in mind. [1]
While we all want everyone to have access to healthcare, I am concerned some might not be aware that when it comes to state power, police are not the only problem. [2]
Anytime we concentrate too much power, it creates opportunities for it to be abused. This especially true in sectors where the state is providing a public good. [3]
Be it public safety or healthcare, that sector’s adjacency to the state and its tools of repression pose the risk that those tools will be used against the people who are essentially supposed to be its customers. [4]
Abled progressives may not be aware of the history of the forced institutionalization of disabled people, of the mentally ill. Of eugenics and forced sterilization. Of forced treatment. [5]
All of these atrocities required nurses, doctors, lawyers, judges, and police to implement them, and sometimes teachers. [6]
If we nationalized healthcare, would these horror shows be the inevitable outcome? No. [7]
But if we have an opportunity to build new institutions, we need to think about how they might function over the long run, their likely points of failure, and how to make them resilient and resistant to abuses of power, changes in leadership, reductions in funding, etc. [8]
For the deepest understanding of what I mean, read this thread. Yeah, I know it’s long! [9]
Context: whenever I push back on the “if we only nationalized healthcare...” comments by pointing out my concerns, abled progressives disbelieve both my personal experience and subject matter expertise.
Please don’t do that! [10]
Please don’t do that! [10]
If you are advocating for healthcare reform, you can learn from the communities that have the most experience and interactions with with the existing system. Disabled people need to be at the vanguard. [11]
And that’s really what this whole thread is about. We have already learned the worst case scenarios with our bodies. So don’t tell us, “but doctors are nice.” [12]
