There are ways to measure a country’s progress that rarely show up in economic projections. Sometimes the more revealing measure is quieter: what happens to people who need support when money becomes tight. Disability policy can become strangely impersonal, reduced to budgets, debts, and arguments over what a government can afford.
That question followed Pope Leo XIV into the Cottolengo Don Orione on Monday. The sprawling “city of charity” south of Buenos Aires is home to more than 400 disabled people. Residents and staff wept when Leo arrived, and he embraced wheelchair users. He told them their lives were a blessing, not a burden. “A nation’s progress is also measured by how it welcomes all people with disabilities and particular needs,” he said.
There was warmth in the encounter, but something more pointed was happening too. Leo was talking about dignity while standing among disabled people whose care had become a focal point in a larger argument over what Argentina can afford.
President Javier Milei’s austerity measures have affected disability services. The National Congress of Argentina passed a law increasing disability funding after overriding Milei’s veto last year, but his administration has resisted implementing it, citing concerns about Argentina’s budget. For the Cottolengo, those concerns are felt in the ordinary details of daily life.
Fernando Montero, who oversees the organization’s disability services, said the government recently paid the institution about $535,000 for medicine, briefs, and food, covering only four of the last 12 months. Something is striking about how ordinary that list is. Behind arguments about finances are the things someone needs simply to get through a day.
Leo had already begun talking about economic policy alongside human needs shortly after arriving in Argentina on Sunday. “The economy must be at the service of the people, rather than people being at the service of the economy,” he said.
He spoke about those who, “despite hard work, nonetheless struggle to meet their household’s needs,” and called attention to people affected by illness, dependency, and disability. At the Cottolengo, those words became tangible. Leo was standing alongside disabled people, embracing them.
That discussion reaches well beyond Argentina. An estimated 1.3 billion people, around 16 percent of the global population, experience significant disability. The systems surrounding disabled people differ enormously across borders, but the tension between human need and financial pressure is familiar.
Care becomes a cost. Independence is praised. Unfortunately, in a time like this, the services that help people maintain independence are at risk.
The same tension is unfolding in the United States, where reductions in federal Medicaid spending under the “big beautiful bill” have impacted disability services. Medicaid finances nearly 70 percent of home care spending, including home- and community-based services. Tighter state budgets are leaving those services at risk.
The circumstances are different. However, the question feels familiar. When governments decide they need to spend less, how much of that choice impacts disabledpeople?
Even the warmest encounter has limits. An embrace cannot buy medicine, briefs, or food, and saying disabled lives are a blessing cannot keep services funded. But making sure disability is part of a larger conversation about economic priorities matters. Leo’s message was about whose needs matter when meeting them becomes expensive.
Leo offered a different way of measuring what matters. Rather than asking what disabled people cost society, his words offered another perspective. What does society reveal about itself in how it treats people who need support, whether they are disabled, poor, older, ill, or simply struggling to make ends meet?
Soon, Pope Leo will return to The Vatican. Argentina’s fight over disability funding will continue. Similar debates will continue around the world.
The real test comes when budgets are written, choices become harder, and someone’s basic needs are attached to a price. That is when dignity becomes more than a promise. It becomes a choice.
Sources:
Abd, Rodrigo. “Inside the Argentina Disability Care Home Pope Leo XIV Will Visit, in Photos.” AP News, https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/argentina-pope-leo-xiv-pope-francis-pequeno-cottolengo-don-orione-54b1926b69e8f5e77c61ae73d2f5663f.
Agence France-Presse. “Pope Leo Delivers Stinging Rebuke of Milei’s Austerity Measures During Argentina Visit.” The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/09/pope-leo-argentina-visit-speech-javier-milei-austerity.
Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities. World Health Organization, 2022, https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/e0762126-9858-4bac-b009-4e9523e0c600/content.
Mohamed, Maiss, et al. “States’ Management of Medicaid Home Care Spending Ahead of H.R. 1 Effects.” KFF, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/states-management-of-medicaid-home-care-spending-ahead-of-h-r-1-effects/.
Winfield, Nicole, et al. “Pope Urges Argentina to Protect Vulnerable From Milei’s Austerity Measures.” AP News, https://apnews.com/article/pope-argentina-milei-labor-unemployment-disabilities-2ad4ba74d0cff90fb49569df400ac582.