How disabled people will be targeted

Disabled people have long been used as a test case for systems of control—and in authoritarian regimes, they are often first to lose rights. Here's what to watch for:

• Disease registries and tracking systems: Under the guise of efficiency or public health, expect expanded use of federal and state databases to log medical diagnoses. These may be tied to ID systems, employment, or benefit eligibility.
• Insurance caps and care denial: Already underway, expect rising momentum to reintroduce lifetime limits and caps on medical coverage, with chronically ill and disabled people deprioritized for expensive care.
• Pre-existing condition clauses: Legal protections under the ACA may be dismantled through executive action or budget defunding, pricing people with chronic illness out of coverage.
• ADA rollbacks: Watch for quiet deregulation—scaling back enforcement, redefining “reasonable accommodation,” or removing protections from digital spaces.
• Disability deemed ‘nonproductive’: Authoritarian systems often label people with visible or complex disabilities as burdens. If a productivity-based value system is adopted, disabled people may be denied access to housing, education, or public services.

Historical analog: Under Nazi Germany’s Aktion T4 program, disabled people were among the first targets for medical exclusion, sterilization, and euthanasia. What began as quiet bureaucracy became systemic violence.