BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- "Dear Premier Wen, I'd like to tell you the good news first. The problem I brought up at the seminar last year has been solved in Beijing," wrote 34-year-old, wheelchair-bound Li Nan to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Jan. 20 this year.
The problem Li referred to was the high prices of one-off hygiene products that had plagued people with work-related spinal cord injuries for a long time.
On Jan. 31, 2010, Wen talked with a group of ordinary people in Chaoyang District in Beijing to get their opinions on the draft of a government work report that will be submitted to the national legislature in March.
Wen asked Li to be the first to voice her views at the seminar. Li said that patients with spinal cord injuries had to spend about 2,000 yuan (303 U.S. dollars) a month on one-off hygiene products because of their incontinence.
"My injury allowance is roughly 2,000 yuan a month. I have to live on my parents' pension," she said.
She suggested giving more attention to the employment and mental health of the disabled, and also for some revisions on the catalogue of drug and auxiliary devices for those disabled by work-related injuries. She also proposed more subsidies for these people.
Responding to the suggestions, Wen said, "Li Nan's case is far from an individual one. The disabled are a very large group of people in China who need more attention... We need to study, revise and renew the government regulations on work-related injury insurance."
Wen also encouraged Li to be optimistic in face of ordeals.
Li, who graduated from Beijing Youth Politics College in 1997, was once a prize-winning amateur dancer. However, she became confined to a wheelchair after a traffic accident in 2003.
On March 5 last year, Li beamed with pride as she watched TV. Premier Wen was delivering the government work report at the annual session of the national legislature.
Wen pledged to "work harder to build the social security and social services system for people with disabilities." The premier also promised that "Workers' compensation will be extended to all of the 1.3 million workers injured in previous jobs who are not receiving benefits."
"I am thrilled to see that my advice on improving social security for the disabled was included in the government work report," Li said in her letter, which summarized the changes she experienced in the past year because of the improved social security system.
The Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau announced last year that people would be reimbursed for one-off diapers and urine bags under the municipal work-related injury insurance program beginning June 2010.
"The Beijing policy has relieved our heavy economic burdens and ensured the quality of our life," Li wrote.
Li, however, said that though some places has begun to give living and nursing subsidies for the disabled, the policy needs to be extended to other parts of the country.
After reading the letter on Jan. 31, Wen Jiabao instructed relevant organs in the State Council, or Cabinet, and the Beijing municipal government "to conduct research and set down policies to better protect and aid people with serious disabilities, and to help them solve their difficulties and improve their quality of life." |
