"Not Medically Necessary"

When a broken healthcare system denies access to crucial activity-based devices for people living with limb loss and limb difference, everyday athletes, clinicians, and advocates must compel lawmakers to turn their right to movement into law or sit on the sidelines of their own lives.

Every human is built to move. For hundreds of thousands of Americans living with limb loss and limb difference, that freedom is anything but guaranteed because a broken healthcare system has decided their physical activity isn't worth paying for.

“Not Medically Necessary” weaves together intimate interviews with personal footage shared by patients, clinicians, and advocates around the country. It tells the stories of people whose lives were impacted by accident, illness, and circumstance, only to discover that a very different battle was yet to come. The technology to run, climb, swim, and play already exists, yet most insurance companies draw the line at basic mobility. Anything beyond the bare minimum–every hike, every bike ride, every game of catch with your kids–is branded a luxury and declared not medically necessary.

The film brings together patients fighting denial after denial, clinicians caught between what their patients need and what the system will allow, and the everyday athletes who refuse to be left on the sidelines. Together they are building a nationwide grassroots movement around a single idea whose time has come: that physical activity is a human right.

Millions remain uncovered. A federal bill is still a fight away. But when people show up with the truth of their own lives, systems can be moved. The next chapter of the disability rights movement is here. And it's just getting started. 

Bring "Not Medically Necessary" to your city beginning this November!

So Every BODY Can Move is a national movement advocating for legislation that modernizes insurance coverage of activity-specific prosthetic and orthotic care. Rooted in the belief that physical activity is a right, not a privilege, the initiative is working toward legislation in 28 states ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games.

The movement brings together people with limb loss and limb difference, clinicians, athletes, advocates, and organizations to raise the standard of care so people can access the devices they need for physical activity, employment, bathing, and total well-being.

Vignette is a documentary production company and creative agency based in Seattle. Gary Matoso started the company in 2011 after a long stint as a photojournalist, bringing together a team of like-minded creatives to tell impactful stories of real people. Vignette works across media, creating photo, short-form, and feature-length stories. Learn more at storyiseverything.com