Health Ministry won't fund disabled Holocaust survivor's wheelchair
Ministry cites Avri Michal's age, 75, as reason for refusal; ministry provides equipment to survivors under 65, and only if they are active.
By Ruth Sinai75-year old Holocaust survivor Avri Michal has use of only one arm and one leg, but has been forced to spend the last few months taking on the Health Ministry in an effort to receive funding for an electric wheelchair.
Despite the difficulties faced by Michal - who hid from the Nazis when they stormed his native Czechoslovakia and moved to Israel in 1949, at the age of 17 - the ministry has rejected his request for an electric wheelchair. Such wheelchairs, it contends, are provided only to people under the age of 65, and only if they are active outside the home.
"It's not logical," said Michal, who has taken a loan to finance an electric wheelchair but is having a hard time meeting the payments. "The older a person is, the harder it is for him to get around outside. What, from the age of 64 I have to be a prisoner in the home?"
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Disgraceful !! There are no words to explain the caulosnous of the health ministry.A note must be placed on the official whom gave the flimsy excuse as if and when he will need assistance it will be blatantly refused with the same excuse he to-day uses.These same idiots that have had education all thier lives of our history including the holocast now try to blacken the name of the survivors.Corruption and cheating is well known in the health ministry.As any medical practitioner as to the filth of this ministry/.
The settlers are a costly bunch and they should and have all the rights denied to the Holocaust survivors. After all, they are fighting for Grosse Israel.
truly disgusting while german and Austria are still paying up.
When TV journalists tried to ask him he declined & drove off in a Huff. Or it might have even been a Kia or Mazda, couldn't really see as he almost knocked the TV crew down. Hirchzohn RESIGN & take your boss & his cronies with you!
Well thats how they treat people here. Maybe he could ask Hirschon for a loan, he has millions !
Arkady where are you? The Government cannot govern. It cannot even provide what is a basic necessity to one of its citizens. P.S. how much did you say is being spent DAILY on security, secretarial expenses etc. for Mr. Ariel Sharon. I am not discussing medical expenses. They should continue to be met in full, but them so should Mr. Michal's.
I have it on very good authority that the MOH has a policy not to fund powered wheelchairs for people over 65. Their rationale? - old people are incapable of learning how to use them. Besides this being monumentally stupid, it is also insultingly ageist and contravenes WHO guidelines.
It is too difficult to read about what is happening to people in this country Lack of compassion , dominated by greed, selfishness and disregard for others, is the norm here. "A light unto nations" has become a vulgar clischee !
A total disgrace, where are the people, who voted for the "GIL PARTY"????? The knesset plus other welfare agents should be ashamed of themselves !!!!! What are you doing with all the money that has been put aside to help these poor people???
BOOOSHA!!!
How in Gods name do Israelis expect to get mercy from the rest of the world when they don't know how to show mercy to their own people.
This is a total disgrace. Ha'aretz, publish some details and I will send you some of the bloody money, and I'm sure I will not be alone. If the government won't act the people must. It is only a small thing, but to this man it is very big, and we can make a difference.