Government Pulled out Proposed Changes to Disability Assessment Rules

The government pulled out proposed changes to the rules for disability assessment on 10^th of April. The decision was announced by Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kiril Ananiev following a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and Social Minister Bisser Petkov.

The reason for the withdrawal of the changes is the reaction of the organizations of people with disabilities who said they were planning large-scale protests against the intended reform of the disability assessment system.

Despite the withdrawn draft Ordinance, there will be a protest on 11th of April. According to Health Minister Kiril Ananiev, the changes to the Ordinance are proposed by the medical community. The aim is not to harm the rights of people with disabilities, but to increase control and create better access conditions. Following the organizations' response, the ministry of health proposed a meeting but because of the planned protest, the meeting betweeen the organizations and the ministry will be held on Friday.

The Ordinance will not be submitted until full unanimity is reached. One of the proposals that did not meet the approval of the organizations of the disabled people was that for people with more than one disease, the new system envisages that only one lead health condition will be included in the disability assessment.