Image description: The late Carrie Ann Lucas, wearing a lime green dress, appears in court using her power wheelchair. Image credit: The Colorado Independent.
Medical Abuse Hotline
The Medical Abuse Hotline is a community-driven response to the institutional violence and abuse of the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). The Hotline will serve as a resource for survivors providing tools for community defense and advocacy, and access to a referral network of progressive practitioners; while documenting these experiences in order to expose and educating about medical abuse and hold the MIC accountable for its actions.
What is medical abuse?
Medical abuse is the most common, yet overlooked, form of institutional violence in the US today. Denial of necessary care or being forced into unwanted care, being exploited in vulnerable or dependent states are examples of how medical abuse can be subtle. Racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, fatphobia, and classism, along with other forms of bias all lead to implicit or unconscious bias and systemic abuse. Medical abuse can also include outright physical, emotional, and sexual assault. Withholding access to healthcare or live-sustaining medication is medical torture, and is one of the most prevalent and pervasive forms of social control and institutional violence of our times. It profoundly violates our most basic human rights and dignity, and is dehumanizing.
Carrie Ann Lucas
On February 24th, 2019, Carrie Ann Lucas, a beloved and renowned disability rights attorney and trailblazer who innovated representation for parents with disabilities, died after being denied a $2,000 medication for a lung infection by her health insurer, UnitedHealthcare. Lucas was forced into taking a less expensive medication she was known to be allergic to, resulting in a rapid health decline with numerous hospital stays over her last year, and causing her to lose the ability to speak. Her Facebook obituary notes, “UnitedHealthcare’s attempt to save $2,000 cost over $1 million in health care expenses over the past year.” More importantly, it cost Lucas her life. <Show more here>
Lucas gained national attention in June 2017, after staging a multi-day protest with other Atlantis ADAPT (based in Denver) members inside the Denver office of Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) to demand republicans cease efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Carrie Ann resisted arrest by refusing to tell police officers how to operate her motorized wheelchair. Learn more about Carrie Ann’s life and work.
The Health Justice Commons mourns and rages for this tragic and profoundly unjust loss.
In the days leading up to her death, Carrie Ann was also forced to ration her insulin. According to a recent study from the Yale Diabetes Center, 1 in 4 Americans with Diabetes engage in insulin rationing due to skyrocketing prices and the complicity of health insurers, the majority of those rationing have health insurance.
We know abuses like these, and their deadly consequences, are part of business as usual of US insurance companies, especially UnitedHealthcare (which was #5 on Forbes 2018 Top 500 list of richest corporations).
UnitedHealthcare You Can’t Hide: Check out the class action lawsuit UnitedHealthcare lost in March 2019 for withholding life-saving treatment from people seeking mental health services.
Hotline Timeline
Town Hall <date> - Completed!
MIC Class With Dr Benjamin - Completed!
Grassroots fundraising campaign launch - 11/12/19
Know Your Medical Rights Training, Brooklyn, NY -
First hotline advocates training - 2/2020
Hotline Launch - 4/2020
Community Engagement and Grassroots Fundraising Campaign!
We’re launching a Community Engagement and Grassroots Fundraising Campaign starting in the middle of November. We’ve collected selfie videos from leaders, activists, and visionaries connected with our communities about why they support the Medical Abuse Hotline. Stay tuned for more information and ways that you can get involved.
Get Involved:
Share Your Survivor Stories HERE!
Provide Hotline Input HERE!
Are you a healer, healthcare or legal worker? Join the hotline network to create access to more resources for our communities. Contact Us to learn more.
Want to receive cutting-edge training to become a hotline advocate? Training begins in February. Contact Us.
Does your social, racial, gender, environmental, or disability justice organization want to become a hotline partner? Contact Us.