A study of "persons with internal organ handicaps," something that goes so unnoticed you hardly know the term, was released Monday. Persons with "internal organ" handicaps experience twice the suffering because they need continuous treatment and have a hard time finding employment because of social prejudices. Subsequently, one out of four are in extreme poverty.
When you think of physical handicap, you think of things like retardation or blindness and deafness. Internal handicaps were only officially recognized as such seven years ago, which is why they are so unknown. It was in 1999 that the government included persons on dialysis or with kidney transplants and persons with heart problems in the "Handicapped Persons Welfare Act," and in 2003 persons with ostomies relating to kidney or bowel activity, epilepsy, or respiratory handicaps came to be included as well. According to government figures, persons with handicaps such as these, which make daily life quite difficult yet are not easily noticed, number 90,000. However, some say their actual number is much higher.
It is well known that our society is very lacking in concern the handicapped compared to developed nations. Fortunately, there is growing recognition of the fact that discrimination against handicapped persons has to be stopped. It is time Korea has policies that break down into subcategories that take the characteristics of different types of handicaps into consideration. People with visible physical handicaps have less of a financial burden when it comes to treatment, but they suffer greatly because of social prejudice. In contrast, people with internal handicaps have a harder time with the financial burden than the prejudice, and so they urgently need greater health insurance benefits. No less important than specific measures for specific problems will be steadily adding diseases legally recognized as handicaps.
The Hankyoreh, 28 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Unseen Difficulties for Unseen Handicaps |
