Every day Atta’a helps adults and children access – and fight for – their rights. Many times the stories are heart-wrenching. Here’s one of them.
Illustrative picture by pikrepo
A social worker from Hadassah Mt. Scopus contacted us (Atta’a is in contact with all social workers in Jerusalem hospitals) to help her with an urgent case she has in connection with the National Insurance Institute (NII).
There is a 7-year-old patient who underwent one operation and who needs to undergo another 2. However, NII decided that his parents are not eligible for health insurance because they couldn’t prove that they live in Jerusalem (a pre-requisite for Palestinians to receive Jerusalem resident status, only after which they can receive health insurance). Without health insurance, the parents were asked to pay NIS 200,000 to continue for the second operation, with the final bill potentially reaching NIS 300,000. As with many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, this is a poor family with no way of paying such huge sums of money. The social worker helped the family to submit all forms and documentation to prove that they do indeed live in – and have never left – Jerusalem.
Since time is of the essence the social worker called Atta’a on behalf of the family in order to speed the process up.
We asked the social worker to prepare a report on the family and its situation. We also asked the surgeon to prepare a report on the child’s medical condition. Together with all the documents proving that the family lives in Jerusalem Atta’a went directly to the NII Director in East Jerusalem and the Director of the Residency Division (with whom Atta’a has a good working relationship) to request that they expedite this family’s case. The good news is that the family was granted residency status after only a week, and that from here on out they will be covered by health insurance, including one of the operations.
The bad news is that this took place on January 30, 2020, after the boy had already had two operations. By law this means that the family still had to pay for these first two operations, which were very expensive. Legally, after the NII decision, all additional matters must be appealed through the court system. Atta’a referred the family to another organization that can help them with these legal matters. We wish them the best in getting access to this coverage.
Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of Atta’a.
