“Life After”: Film Exposes How Medicaid Cuts, Assisted Dying Laws May Bring Disabled to Early Graves

As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump’s budget bill passed by the Republican-led Congress, a new investigative documentary, Life After, examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that could increasingly confront members of the disabled community. Reid Davenport, who directed the film, notes the “film is not about suicide. It is about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them.” People with disabilities “already experience huge health disparities,” adds Colleen Cassingham, who produced the film. “When you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care.” Life After is now screening in person at select theaters and virtually online.