Amid reports of rationing care, DREDF releases "Knowing Your Disability Healthcare Rights During COVID-19"

As if the past few weeks weren’t bad enough with the rapid rise in the number of positive testing of those with COVID-19, including deaths of more than 3,000 Americans, but then the health departments at a few states began conferring on a “triage” plan that would decide who receives full care based on age, health status and severity of illness while the rest would be given “comfort care.”

Last week, Susan Henderson, executive director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), wrote a public letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to express worry that the state had also begun “discussion of ‘rationing’ medical care.” In response, DREDF and Disability Rights California (DRC) published “Know Your Disability Healthcare Rights” sheets that can help disabled people and family members assert and defend their rights to medical care. The information includes DRC's toll-free number to call if you run into a problem with a hospital or doctor during the COVID-19 crisis.

You can download to your mobile phone or print the document to take with you when seeking medical care. ENGLISH-SPANISH VERSION or ENGLISH-CHINESE VERSION.

We’d also like to applaud DRC for putting together an outstanding page on their web site with a ton of incredibly practical and important resources available to the disability community during this pandemic. You can access it HERE.