02.12.2020

And people with mental disabilities will be subject to sheltered employment

The circle of persons subject to sheltered employment is expanding by including people with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities in order to support them in the process of their employment in the labor market. Parliament voted on second reading amendments to the Disability Act.

The amendments ensure the right of people with disabilities to aids, devices, equipment and medical devices, outside the scope of compulsory health insurance, determined individually on the basis of their specific needs within the health system. Thus, they will be entitled to aids determined individually by a medical document issued by the medical advisory commissions, based on their specific needs and according to a specification approved by the National Health Insurance Fund.

In case of change of the circumstances, on the basis of which support has been provided in accordance with the requirements of the law, the director of the Social Assistance Directorate will prepare ex officio a new individual needs assessment.

From now on, the National Health Insurance Fund will take over the provision and payment of aids and medical devices for people with disabilities. This will be done with a transfer from the state budget through the budget of the Ministry of Health.

The institutionalization of the new State Agency for People with Disabilities at the Council of Ministers was postponed for a year. By the end of 2020, the Agency for People with Disabilities was to be transformed into a state agency within the Council of Ministers. It will now be operational from 1 January 2022, instead of early next year.

By December 31, 2021, the Social Assistance Agency shall submit to the National Health Insurance Fund the information related to the provided targeted benefits under this law.