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August 17, 2005
Marta Russell on Medicaid in Monthly Review
Marta Russell's keen progressive lens has been turned to our current Medicaid "crisis" and appears in the current Monthly Review. I am extremely happy that Russell continues to poke at The Left about disability and writes her analyses for pubs like Monthly Review and Z Mag. Far too often we seem content to talk among ourselves, or, perhaps, lack the knowledge or persistence (and it does take persistence) to get the leftie pubs to publish us. Marta Russell has done more than most to bridge this divide.
And it doesn't hurt that her analyses are always right on. Here she writes that the current Medicaid cutbacks are "clearly an attack on poor people, and it may wind up killing disabled and chronically ill persons before all is done. It is also a strike from those segments in our society who wish to dismantle the entire Medicaid system. Worse, it will force a rollback of disabled people's civil rights." Yes. Precisely. She goes on to lay out in one place most of the most egregious things that have been happening, including the stuff in Tennessee.
The Left and progressives in general sometimes seem almost clueless when it comes to the significance of disability issues to society in general. Progressives are not necessarily all that much better than the general populace in this regard. Perhaps it's because we haven't pushed them; perhaps it's other reasons. But I always try to thank Marta R when I see her doing this important work.
If you haven't read her seminal book, Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract, now's a good time to get a copy.
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Posted by mjohnson at August 17, 2005 10:29 AM