By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) is moving to get human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive people acknowledged as physically disabled so that they can receive state subsidies, tax cuts and other welfare benefits.
However, the central government is showing a lukewarm attitude toward the proposal.
A city government spokesman said Monday it will submit the plan to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs this week.
The request is based on a report by a research team from Inha University and the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS (KADA). Many HIV-positive people suffer from financial difficulty after being diagnosed, but are only exempted from paying national health insurance premiums. The team reported 47 percent of 281 HIV positive patients have no regular income and more than 55 percent live on less than 500,000 won a month.
Respondents to a questionnaire said their most pressing issues are financial difficulties and medical privacy. They said financial support and medical care would improve their lives alongside public campaigns to change public perception.
The team said in the United States and Japan, AIDS patients are registered as physically disabled regardless of their symptoms.
However, in Korea many are reluctant to report themselves to the government out of concern of leakage of private information.
``Current registration cards detail diseases or disorders,'' a KADA spokesman said. However, the ministry said it is unlikely that such people would be acknowledged as disabled. A ministry official said if HIV positive and AIDS patients are acknowledged, those with other chronic diseases will complain.
``We should decide whether AIDS should be considered a disorder rather than a disease. What about those with myocardial infarction or cancer? I think its very unlikely,'' he said.
He also added that in the United States, the acknowledgement is to prevent social discrimination such as dismissal or denial of jobs.
``What HIV positive patients need is practical support and we should find ways to provide it without having to recognize them as disabled. We are fixing standards for the disabled by 2010 and might take a look at the issue then,'' he said.
As of last December, a total of 4,343 people were diagnosed as HIV positive with about 1,693 residing in Seoul.