Disability and the Mosquito
By Wieland Kaphingst, Eng. (BMT), CPO (CE), CP Proverb of unknown origin:
"If you think you are too small to make a difference,
you haven't been in bed with a mosquito."
And what does disability have to do with mosquitoes?
 According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
about 10 percent of any population has some kind of physical
disability.
Thus, it is no problem to calculate how many people are
afflicted in your neighborhood, in your town, state, countryor the
entire world.
However, governments worldwide show an increasing trend to
neglect the needs of this quite impressive and important percentage
of their populationthe people they supposedly take care of, the
people who vote in elections.
Just recently I read that one of the US states is the first to
consider cutting orthotic and prosthetic services in its Medicaid
program.
If you deal with health insurers on a daily basisas most of us
doyou have learned that cutting services to this specific
population down to the bare bones has been one of their most
prevalent cost-cutting practices over the last few decades.
Employers try to keep orthotic and prosthetic coverage out of
their group insurance plans, or don't even consider it, regarding
it as too expensive. In the end there may be nobody there to cover
these and related expenses.
Who is taking effective action about this?
Everyone thinks he or she is too small to make a difference.
Those who do try, find out that they are not taken seriously.
Either they are suspected of doing this for their own purpose and
profits as providers or manufacturers and their organizations, or
they do it for a "humanitarian purpose" which cynics doubt, since
this seems to be a most ridiculous thing to do. To them, only
dreamers believe in the relevance of humanitarian values in a world
driven by economic values.
Let's face it: Credibility is not on our side.
Let's be honest too: sure we need to make a profitjust as
anybody else does. But was that your reason for getting into this
field in the first place? Aren't there any better venues, if
profit-making is goal number one? What about going into the
insurance business instead?
Let's Be Mosquitoes
 But what about those inflicted by disability? What
about the disabled population themselves?
As with the mosquito, power is in the masses only. It is easy to
kill one or even ten of them. But have you ever been in one of the
wetland nature parks during mosquito season?
How would a government react if thousands of amputees would
march toward its capital, prostheses off, walking on crutches,
letting the rest of the world see what a residual limb actually
looks like and acts like when not "covered" by a prosthesis? The
media would have a frenzy in covering that event!
How would that government feel if those limbless persons make
sure the rest of the world learns that their government has just
cut the cost of supplying them with adequate prosthetic care?
Wouldn't it feel like 10,000 mosquito bites-or worse?
Let's be mosquitoes! Let's also help those who already are
mosquitoes know that they have the power of the masses. Let's
develop strategies to multiply their existing power.
Let them have proper education on what the
technological/clinical choices of good prosthetic/orthotic care can
do for them today. Keeping them uneducated is a tactic of those who
deny their responsibilitiesonly we can change that.
Let them know about their rights under existing law and let them
know how they can make sure that these rights are provided to them
in their full extent. And let them know what they can do to change
flaws in the law according to their needs.
Aren't we lucky we live in a democracy and have the freedom and
democratic obligation to do just that?
This is what WE can do: Form a group to support the mosquitoes.
Make sure they know about their power. Be one of them. Let's join
the mosquitoes! 
Table Of Contents - February 2003
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