President Javier Milei's administration has frozen payments to organizations providing essential therapeutic and educational services for Argentina's estimated 5 million people with disabilities, systematically dismantling a social safety net and redirecting resources towards a national budget surplus. This action has deprived individuals like Analía Celis, a 34-year-old with intellectual disability and cerebral palsy, of critical support, including sports therapy, baking programs, and painting activities that provided independence and connection.
The government's freeze on payments has left disability care providers, including day centers and residential programs, with mounting debts. These nonprofits, which also include special education and job training services, operate on revenue from state-run insurance programs. Irregular government payments and reimbursement rates held below sky-high inflation had already strained these organizations, but the flow of money stopped altogether six months ago.
To cope with the financial squeeze, providers have increasingly slashed staff, delayed salaries, shrunk meals, and shortened their operating hours. Martín Lucero, legal representative of the Argentine nonprofit Andar, stated that the organization has been forced to sell vehicles to maintain operations. Andar stopped running round-trip bus commutes to its day center two months ago, leaving dozens of participants, including Celis, stranded across the sprawling Buenos Aires suburb of Moreno who depended on its free, customized transport to attend. Lucero characterized the cuts as a "political choice" rather than a necessity.
Who Pays the Price
The human cost of these cuts is immediate and severe. Approximately 30% of the 150 people with disabilities enrolled in Andar's day program can no longer reach the center, which offers a bucolic stretch of land with a soccer field, vegetable garden, and a professional-grade kitchen where participants can earn a monthly wage working for its catering service. Therapists warn that without consistent programming, people with disabilities can quickly regress. Clementina Tabares, 74, Analía Celis's mother, reported that Celis now wakes up three or four times every night "screaming that she wants to go to the farm" (Andar's center). Tabares herself now misses her own medical appointments due to the necessity of providing round-the-clock care for Celis, who spends her days in bed with a blanket hanging over the window to block out the sun and rock music blaring from her phone, occasionally groaning in agitation. Roman Pontecorvo, a 28-year-old with intellectual disability, expressed fear that if Andar closes, "many of us will be left with nothing. It will be total chaos." Disability rights groups estimate that up to 50 therapeutic centers have already shut down this year, many in Argentina’s rural provinces.
The State's Role in Dismantling
President Milei, who took office in late 2023, has pursued an austerity agenda, portraying the cuts to disability programs as a "reform process aimed at eliminating fraud and waste in federal bureaucracy." This narrative aligns with global conservative efforts to dismantle social safety nets. However, authorities have not offered evidence of rampant abuse, despite allegations of fabricated medical tests. Last year, the government suspended 140,000 disability checks on suspicion of fraud, later acknowledging that in most cases, beneficiaries had simply failed to obey or understand summons for in-person assessments, often located hundreds of miles from their homes. Celeste Fernandez, co-director of the Civic Association for Equality and Justice, which successfully sued the government over these suspensions last year, stated that the government is "not carrying out a serious reform. It is simply emptying the system."
The state's actions extend to actively blocking legislative efforts to protect disabled Argentines. Last year, a law was passed declaring an emergency for people with disabilities, designed to boost benefits that had lost 30% of their value to inflation and guarantee funding for providers until at least December 2026. Milei stalled the law's entry into force, arguing its fiscal impact, roughly 0.35% of gross domestic product, would undermine his "hard-won budget surplus," Argentina’s first after decades of deficit. Milei stated after vetoing the law, "Using noble causes, they pass laws that drive the nation into bankruptcy." Congress overrode his veto, and court battles are ongoing. On May 18, a federal judge ordered the government to restore frozen payments within 72 hours, citing that for people with disabilities, "the interruption of treatment generates setbacks in development." The government appealed this decision, demonstrating its commitment to maintaining the freeze.
Privatization and Profit
Further entrenching the privatization of collective resources, Milei has introduced a bill that would formally dismantle the current system of state payments to therapeutic centers. This proposed legislation would empower private insurance programs and provincial governments to negotiate their own rates with providers. It would also impose new restrictions on who qualifies for benefits, ending subsidies for all but those below the poverty line with disabilities classified as "complete" and "permanent." This bill, which has drawn backlash from rights groups, awaits congressional debate.
The government also shut down the national disability agency, Andis, laying off hundreds of workers and consolidating disability programs under the Health Ministry. While the government claims these actions are about transparency, critics argue the intent is to tear down the system entirely. Meanwhile, prosecutors are investigating accusations of corruption at a higher level: leaked recordings from last year describe the ex-director of the national disability agency, Diego Spagnuolo, alleging that Karina Milei, the president’s sister and closest adviser, took hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies seeking public contracts. Milei has denied wrongdoing on his sister’s behalf. These allegations highlight how the dismantling of public services can coincide with opportunities for private enrichment, even as the state claims to be eliminating "waste."