KDCA Improves Support Criteria for Rare Disease Patients' Medical Expenses... Accepts Human Rights Commission Recommendations

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The National Human Rights Commission announced on the 1st that the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has accepted its recommendation to revise the guidelines for the 'Medical Expense Support Project for Rare Disease Patients,' which previously set different support obligations based on gender.

The KDCA selects beneficiaries for the 'Medical Expense Support Project for Rare Disease Patients' by investigating and evaluating the income and property levels of the patient and their support obligation household if the patient is enrolled in health insurance.

According to the current criteria for support obligations under the project, if the patient is a married woman, her biological parents are excluded from being support obligors, and the spouse's parents (parents-in-law) are included. Conversely, if the patient is a married man, his biological parents are included as support obligors, while the spouse's parents (father-in-law and mother-in-law) are excluded.

The Human Rights Commission judged that designating the parents-in-law as support obligors for married women constitutes discrimination without reasonable grounds and recommended revising the related guidelines.

In response, the KDCA has revised the guidelines to consider only the patient's own parents as support obligors regardless of the rare disease patient's marital status and has replied with an implementation plan to apply the revised guidelines from 2022 onward in the project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.