PATIENTS suffering from chronic illnesses are set to get easier medical access in La Trinidad, Benguet province.
Aside from persons with disabilities (PWDs), La Trinidad is also set to give additional benefits to patients with chronic disease after the approval of the “La Trinidad PWD-Identification Card for Patients with Chronic Illness Ordinance.”
The ordinance, co-authored by councilors Horacio Ramos, Estrella Adeban and Arthur Shontogan, will give additional benefits provided that these patients apply for a PWD-typed identification card.
The Office of the Municipal Mayor, thru the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office, is assigned to implement the issuance of the PWD identification card.
"Patients with chronic illness, can avail of a 20 percent discount for medicines, services, laboratory examinations, therapies and dialysis," said Ramos, who heads the Committee on Health. "Patients do not need to bring all their documents just to prove they have a disability.
Ramos said the ID card for chronic illness serve as the Standard National Identification Card that will give 20 percent discount on their medical needs.
The ordinance was anchored under Republic Act 7277, or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, which defines PWDs as those “suffering from restriction of different abilities as result of mental, physical, or sensory impairment to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for human being.”
Chronic illness also known as non-communicable diseases are conditions of long duration and generally slow progression that cannot and at present be cured with controlled laboratory examinations, medication, therapies, dialysis and other treatment.
Chronic illness covers cardiovascular diseases, all types of cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and other dementias, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.