For many, a power outage is an inconvenience. But for some families, it is life threatening.
Disruptions to the electricity supply shut down oxygen concentrators. Feeding pumps stop working. Ventilators cease functioning. For people who depend on powered medical equipment, electricity is not just another convenience—it is the difference between life and death.
In Argentina, thousands of people depend on electricity to survive. However, energy policies often treat electricity as a market commodity, prioritizing profitability and exposing entire families to constant risk.
Between 2022 and 2024, researchers based at Universidad Favaloro conducted a study on quality of life among electricity-dependent families (publication forthcoming). This research analyzed more than 11,000 registered cases across Argentina’s 24 provinces and included in-depth interviews with 98 families.
Most existing research focuses on the clinical and technical aspects of mechanical ventilation support. By contrast, approaches grounded in the social model of disability—centered on rights and quality of life—remain limited. The present study bridges these perspectives with the aim of helping to translate a rights-based approach into effective living conditions for vulnerable populations.
The results reveal a clear gap between the legal framework governing energy provision and its actual implementation and illuminate the intersection of disability, energy poverty, and gender inequality.
Disability and energy: a global issue
According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 billion people live with disabilities worldwide, and 85 million of them reside in Latin America.
The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities identifies the negative effects of environmental barriers on the full participation of persons with disabilities as a rights violation.
Energy insecurity affects millions of households worldwide. But electricity dependence makes the problem starkly visible. When the grid fails, the consequences are immediate.
The Argentine legal framework: progress and limits
A 2017 Argentine law guarantees people who are electricity dependent for health reasons a free electricity supply, priority in service restoration, provisions for alternative energy sources, and presence in a national registry. The law positioned Argentina as a leader in treating access to electricity as a human right. However, legal recognition does not always translate into effective protection.
Universidad Favaloro’s research identified several structural obstacles impeding the law’s full promise: complex administrative procedures, delays in generator delivery, and uneven implementation across provinces. Moreover, an overarching emphasis on reducing public expenditure across Argentina’s public policies compromises the scope, implementation, and sustainability of policies aimed at disability support and care. In practice, many families continue to live with uncertainty.
Electricity dependence profoundly shapes everyday life. Families responding to Universidad Favaloro’s study described experiencing a constant fear of power outages, particularly during storms and heat waves. The logistical challenges of transporting medical equipment restrict social participation, leading to isolation and reduced community engagement on top of this anxiety. There is also the economic pressure of costly transportation, home adaptations, and medical supplies. Moreover, prioritizing caregiving responsibilities often means foregoing other paid work.
Beyond these material hardships, electricity dependence also reinforces gendered caregiving burdens and deepens existing social inequalities. The study showed that women constituted 87% of primary caregivers for people with disabilities. Such feminization of care aligns with evidence on structural inequalities in unpaid labor in the region.
The testimonies of affected families starkly capture the distance between formal recognition of rights and their everyday realization. As one family told the research team: “Suddenly, a loud alarm with a deafening noise woke us up. A constant beeping. We got up and there was no electricity. The alarm came from the oxygen concentrator: it was telling us that Joaquín could not breathe, as if his head were being held underwater. We did not know what to do. No one had prepared us for a power outage. We knew how to resuscitate him, but we did not know how to respond to something so ordinary that suddenly became the line between life and death.”
Energy as a human right
The United Nations’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has established that the right to health requires availability, accessibility, and quality of services. A lack of electricity denies these to those who depend on medical devices.
Likewise, the UN promotes universal access to affordable and reliable energy. For electricity-dependent families, reliability is not a matter of comfort but of survival. If the market alone dictates electricity provision, the most vulnerable households inevitably remain exposed.
The additional pressure placed on electrical grids worldwide by climate change–related heat waves and storms intensifies all these dangers. At the same time, home-based healthcare is more and more common. In the context of this larger crisis, electricity dependence reveals structural inequalities: when disability and poverty intersect, the chances of survival diminish. This convergence intensifies the need to identify and register electricity-dependent populations, guarantee energy backup systems, and consider gender disparities in care policies.
An ethical decision
The debate around access to energy is not technical. It is political and moral.
Do we treat electricity as a commodity? Or do we recognize that, for some people, it is inseparable from the right to life? The case of Argentina demonstrates the possibility of developing legal frameworks and underscores the constant effort required to implement the rights they establish.
When electricity powers a ventilator, it also powers the ability to live and participate in society.
That is not a privilege. It is a right.