Resource Centre

Disabled persons’ rights to health services

The Republic of Serbia has committed itself in the area of community care for the health of its citizens to also caring for the disabled. The law specifies that these rights are acquired on equal terms. This also means that at the point of delivery of healthcare the beneficiary must not be discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, language etc. or on the basis of mental or physical disability. Disabled persons have guaranteed rights to health insurance, even when they do not meet the criteria for attaining the status of an insured person through employment. This approach by the legislature is fully justified, since the disabled must have certain rights guaranteed to them without the requirement for them to be employed or in work, which is often an impossible condition for them.

The rights to medical insurance which are guaranteed to all citizens, and to disabled persons, include not only prevention and early detection of illness, but also medical rehabilitation and the right to disability aids, which is of special importance in the case of the disabled. The goal of medical rehabilitation is to restore or improve impaired bodily functions, while the aim of disability aids is to correct or to facilitate the performance of everyday tasks of life. Medical rehabilitation is carried out by the use of kinesitherapy, all forms of physical therapy and also by the use of specific forms of disability aids, their application and instruction in their use. Furthermore, the right to disability aids is also achieved through the obligation on the Institute for Health Insurance to pay the cost of disability aids from 65% to 100% of their cost. This is very important, as it facilitates the purchase of these aids which are sometimes essential but which are often inaccessible to disabled persons because of the price.

Disabled persons naturally have all other rights accruing from health insurance and are in no way discriminated against in these rights.

These rights are realized through the Institute for Health Insurance. The task of the Institute is to establish that the conditions for acquiring certain rights are met and to take the necessary decisions so that these rights can be realised. The law sometimes requires the agreement of the Institutes doctors’ committee, which is justified from the medical point of view, but may present difficulties to the disabled person in attending the local office or having a medical examination.

Serbia has regulated this area of health insurance and security for the disabled in a relatively satisfactory manner. The area requires further work is the extension and accessibility of all rights to the disabled, in cooperation with organisations involved in this field.