The fiscal impact of disablity.

This is something that I have been aware of for a while but disabilities that are caused by health conditions are something that we need to talk about, and we don’t know what people are aware of as well.  As being disabled is expensive due to needing to go to specialists and generally not working so having to cut back on things the first and easiest thing to cut back on is entertainment and this for a young person puts them at risk of social isolation further and really does impact their disability further as it serves to isolate them further as well.

We see that this can be a massive issue and can have a massive impact on mental health issues as well, and we see that people are not able to socialize due to not having the funds to do things, there is a term for it in people without disabilities it is called city life syndrome and we see that this is at times amplified in people with disabilities as well, so the impact of the physical disability I know that there are other creators that have talked about having a prosthesis in the USA and what their insurance won’t cover as well.

I know that people will also not seek medical treatment because people can’t afford it or will need to take out loans that they can’t pay back. I am lucky that in Australia we have a universal healthcare system, however, we do see that as inflation rises, we see that even medical professionals can’t afford to bulk bill, this is when they directly send the claim to Medicare, and you don’t have to pay a co-pay.

However medical specialists, unless they are attached to a hospital, don’t generally bulk bill and this can then impact people as well, I see that people see disability as something to be cured but when you can’t afford the doctors you don’t have anything.

I know that it can seem quite patronizing to say that if you don’t have your health you don’t have anything, but you can have a chronic illness and have a good quality of life and this is an issue as well, the quality of life vs quantity of life and the impact it has on your life as well. 

Its also sometimes easier to live on pre-packaged foods because it is cheaper and the price of fruit and vegetable’s can be prohibitive we see that sometimes, it is the decision between going to the doctor or groceries, there are ways that the groceries can become cheaper but it does rely on having the money to be able to set it up first as, yes good health doesn’t come out of pill or a bottle but we see that this becomes an issue at times as well if people can’t access good nutritious foods.

As well as being able to menu plan for a week or month as well, and this does become a longer-term issue that can play into food wastage as well. So we see that it creates more disadvantages as well in the longer term in that the things that help you save money become things that cost you energy and often it’s at a cost to what the body can do.

This is where in Australia we see that Support workers have changed the game in being able to help people with this as well,  as well as lifting some people out of poverty in being able to get them to work on a micro business or into a disability workplace or even working at a fast food place as well