Disability Rights Pennsylvania has filed a civil rights complaint against the Pennsylvania Health Department for a document suggesting that those with disabilities might not receive ventilators during the coronavirus outbreak. The document suggests that healthcare providers use a "point system" biased against those with preexisting conditions and disabilities for accessing these life-saving devices.The points system specifically prioritizes those with longer life expectancies over those with preexisting conditions.
“Doctors associate certain disabilities with a poor prognosis for long-term survival even though people with disabilities regularly outlive the prognoses that doctors ascribe to them, often by years,” Disability Rights Pennsylvania legal director Kelly Darr wrote in a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The letter goes on to suggest the document in its current form could allow physicians to take ventilators away from disabled persons who already use them regularly, “People who are dependent on ventilators should not be at risk of losing their life-preserving equipment if they must go to the hospital. Failure to include such protections in the [guidelines] will discourage such individuals from seeking necessary health care – for COVID-19 or any other issues that may require hospitalization.”
A Pennsylvania Health Department spokesperson gave this response to the criticism: “The interim guidance that was sent to hospitals was a draft that was not meant for further distribution. We will be working with these and additional stakeholders on a final document.”
The fact that the Health Department's response only says that the public wasn't supposed to know about the point system and doesn't suggest that it will be changed doesn't bode well for groups that could be marginalized. The public needs to keep a close eye on the medical system during this time to watch out for discriminatory health care rationing.
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