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A father in his 50s, who is raising two young children while taking care of his severely disabled wife and son, posted a petition to the Blue House. The family was on the brink of collapse because of hospital bills, but they are not receiving medical support because they have a fixed income.



Reporter Song Seong-jun met the family.



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The eldest son of Lee Ho-

jeong

, the father of a man in his 50s, was born with a brain dysfunction.



He is 19 years old, but his growth has stopped and he is only 3 years old, and his intellectual level is only 1 year old.



Recently, my kidneys have also deteriorated and I underwent major surgery.



They are in a situation where they have to be transferred to a nursing hospital, but they are unable to pay the monthly medical and nursing expenses of around 1.5 million won.



In addition, Mr. Lee's wife collapsed from a brain hemorrhage five years ago and is currently in a long-term illness in a nursing hospital.



He is speechless and unable to move on his own.



[Lee Ho-jung/Family with the severely disabled: I have to raise the remaining children well, so I have no time to worry about anything else, but now there is no other way.]



Although taking care of two people with severe disabilities, the Lee family provides more than 90% of the medical expenses out of pocket by the government. It is not eligible for medical benefit assistance.



This is because Mr. Lee, a special school teacher, has a fixed income that exceeds the standard for basic livelihood security.



[Ministry of Health and Welfare official: For a family of five, you must first satisfy the condition of 40% or less of the standard median income before you can look into that part (designated as a target for medical treatment).]



Mr. Lee's real monthly salary is around 3 million won. After paying for the treatment of my wife and eldest child, my bank account balance is low.



I sold my apartment and moved it to jeonse and then to monthly rent, but I already owed more than 200 million won.



The second and third children were not properly cared for, and were recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression.



Facing the collapse of the family, the head of the household filed a national petition to the Blue House and asked for help with a desperate feeling.



[Lee Ho-jeong/Family with the severely disabled: Since we are in a situation where we can no longer stand up, I wonder if even one person can become a medical beneficiary and receive support for medical expenses.]



About 1 million people with severe disabilities in Korea alone.



Although there are many families with multiple severely disabled people, even an accurate fact-finding survey of them has not been conducted.



(Video coverage: Kyungmoon Jeong)