The disabled body and the medical model: disability and unconditional cash transfer in Brazil

Abstract

The Continuous Cash Benefit (BPC) is the largest social program targeting disabled people in Brazil. To have access to the benefit, individuals have to be poor and to be evaluated by a medical specialist. This article analyzes the concept of disability adopted by the physicians in charge of the medical evaluation to grant the access to the social program for disabled people. The research was conducted among 448 physicians using a structured questionnaire, which proposed different conditions of disability and evaluated the medical decision. The results show how the social and medical models of disability are used by the physicians in charge of the medical evaluation. There are situations in which the medical model is dominant, situations in which both models are in dispute and others in which both models are equally valid. The study concludes that the comprehension of disability as an issue of social justice is now moving to areas of expertise where the medical model was traditionally hegemonic.

Key words – disability, social model, medical model, Continuous Cash Benefit, social justice.