This newspaper (chinatimesnet.CN) reporter Wang Xiaohui reports from Beijing.
Recently, the ** Autonomous Region Disabled Persons' Federation, together with the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Finance, the Department of Education, the Health Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and other 5 departments, jointly issued the "Implementation Measures for the Adaptation Subsidy of Basic Assistive Devices for Persons with Disabilities in the Autonomous Region (Trial)", proposing to "ensure basic and wide coverage" as the basic principle, and adapt 140 basic assistive devices in 7 categories to special subsidy objects such as licensed disabled persons with household registration, disabled children, and disabled elderly over 65 years old, and give full subsidies in the form of in-kind subsidies in accordance with the subsidy standards.
So far, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have issued subsidy policies for the adaptation of basic assistive devices for the disabled.
Assistive devices are one of the most basic and effective means to help people with disabilities compensate, improve their functions, improve their quality of life, and enhance their ability to participate in social life. There are more than 85 million disabled people and 44 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people in China. Relevant statistics show that by 2030, the number of disabled and semi-disabled elderly people in China is expected to reach more than 60 million, and by 2050, it will reach 90 million. China is also a major country with chronic diseases, with more than 200 million people. The vast majority of them have the need to use assistive devices.
The subsidy system for assistive devices is an important part of the social security system for the disabled, and it is the institutional guarantee for achieving common prosperity for the disabled in the process of Chinese-style modernization.
Initial institutionalized guarantees
In recent years, all parts of the country have conscientiously implemented the best decision-making and deployment, and while conscientiously organizing and implementing the precise service action for the disabled and significantly improving the service status of assistive devices for the disabled, they have actively promoted the construction of the subsidy system for the adaptation of assistive devices for the disabled (hereinafter referred to as the "assistive device subsidy system"), and has achieved positive progress and remarkable results.
In 2003 and 2010, Shanghai and Beijing took the lead in formulating and introducing a subsidy system for the adaptation of assistive devices for the disabled. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the "Opinions on Accelerating the Process of Moderately Prosperous People with Disabilities" clearly stipulates that "where conditions permit, subsidies may be given to the allocation of basic assistive devices." Since then, nine provinces (regions) including Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Chongqing, Qinghai and Ningxia have issued policies to subsidize the adaptation of assistive devices for persons with disabilities.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Development of Persons with Disabilities proposed that "where conditions permit, subsidies may be provided to the adaptation of basic assistive devices for the disabled with difficulties and severe disabilities in urban and rural areas". Under the guidance and support of the China Disabled Persons' Federation and relevant departments, all localities have actively based themselves on actual conditions to accelerate research and formulation of subsidy policies for the adaptation of basic assistive devices for persons with disabilities. Since 2021, 20 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have successively formulated and introduced subsidy policies for the adaptation of basic assistive devices for persons with disabilities, and on the basis of the relevant policies issued by 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the early stage, the national basic assistive devices adaptation services for persons with disabilities have been initially institutionalized.
At present, 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have introduced a subsidy system for the adaptation of basic assistive devices for persons with disabilities.
In addition to the construction of the subsidy system for assistive devices, in recent years, China's relevant laws and policies on assistive devices for the disabled have also been intensively promulgated, providing a strong guarantee for accelerating the development of assistive devices for the disabled. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the "Opinions on the Establishment of a Relief System for Disabled Children" was promulgated, which stipulates that people at or above the county level shall determine the basic service items and content of assistance for disabled children according to local conditions, including surgery, assistive device configuration and training with the main purpose of reducing functional impairment, improving functional status, and enhancing self-care and social participation ability. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Implementation of Services for Persons with Disabilities" further clarifies that regions with conditions will be encouraged to introduce policies and establish systems to provide subsidies for services such as the adaptation of basic assistive devices for persons with disabilities. At the same time, the China Disabled Persons' Federation, together with relevant departments, issued the "Catalogue of Basic Services for Persons with Disabilities", which includes basic assistive devices such as blind canes, visual aids, hearing aids, prostheses, orthoses, wheelchairs, walking aids, and sitting chairs.
Through years of efforts, China has established and improved a professional service network for assistive devices for the disabled, which is composed of national centers, regional centers, provincial-level centers, and municipal and county-level centers, forming a pattern of assistive devices services for the disabled with professional institutions as the backbone and communities as the backbone. By the end of 2021, there were 2,086 assistive device service institutions across the country, and more than 2,400 mobile service vehicles were equipped at the same time, forming a relatively complete assistive device service network covering urban and rural areas.
Promote equity in assistive device services
Today, the implementation of the assistive device subsidy system provides a guarantee for people with disabilities to live a higher quality of life in the new era.
According to the reporter's understanding, the assistive device subsidy system will give priority to families with financial difficulties and severely disabled people. Among them, Jiangsu will limit the subsidy to five categories of people with disabilities and children under the age of 16 and students with disabilities over the age of 16 who are registered in the province. Anhui will limit the subsidy to 7 categories of people with household registration in the province, who are eligible for subsistence allowance with certificates, disabled persons in extreme poverty, families on the verge of subsistence allowance and monitoring targets for preventing poverty return, families with financial difficulties, other low-income disabled persons, students with disabilities in compulsory education and high school, and newly enrolled disabled college students; Shandong and Hubei will limit the subsidy to persons with disabilities with certificates registered in their own provinces; Henan will limit the subsidy to persons with disabilities over 7 years old with household registration in the province; Hunan will limit the subsidy to disabled persons with certificates or diagnosis certificates who are registered in the province; Sichuan has limited the subsidy to children with disabilities who meet the requirements and persons with disabilities from low-income families who are registered in the province.
In addition to the above 7 provinces, the remaining 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have set the subsidy objects as local licensed disabled persons and disabled children who meet the requirements, among them, Jiangxi will include the disabled with residence permits into the subsidy objects, Hebei and Inner Mongolia will include the disabled students studying in colleges and universities in the province into the subsidy objects, and Hainan and ** will respectively include the disabled elderly without certificates and the disabled elderly over 65 years old into the subsidy objects.
In addition to Inner Mongolia, the remaining 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have formulated a subsidy catalogue for assistive devices for the disabled, which basically covers the needs of various categories of assistive devices for the disabled, such as vision, hearing, speech, physical, mental, and intellectual. The types of assistive devices included in the subsidy catalogue vary from more than 30 to more than 190.
In response to the subsidy standards that everyone is concerned about, all localities mainly determine the subsidy standards based on the category of assistive device products, family economic status, and degree of disability. Tianjin, Shanxi, Jilin, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Qinghai and other 14 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) will give full subsidies to all subsidy objects within the subsidy standard for all assistive devices in the subsidy catalog. 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hunan, Gansu and Xinjiang and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps will give full subsidies to special (priority and key) subsidy recipients such as low-income disabled persons, severely disabled persons or disabled children within the subsidy standard for all assistive devices in the subsidy catalogue, and other subsidy recipients will be given subsidies in different proportions. Hebei, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Ningxia and other four provinces (regions) will give full subsidies to all subsidy objects within the subsidy standard for some assistive devices in the subsidy catalog, and other assistive devices in the subsidy catalogue will be subsidized in different proportions. Hainan Province will provide full subsidies to all assistive devices, licensed disabled persons and disabled children in the subsidy catalogue, and a maximum subsidy of 300 yuan for the disabled elderly without certificates.
In terms of service processes and methods, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi and other places have built "Internet +" assistive device service platforms, realizing "one-stop" services such as online application, ** purchase, and real-time subsidies for the disabled.
According to the reporter's understanding, the establishment of the assistive device subsidy system has obvious effects, making up for the shortcomings of the social security system for the disabled, and also promoting the fairness of assistive device services for the disabled.
Editor-in-charge: Zhou Nan Editor-in-chief: Wang Xiaohui.