The Parliament plenary this Wednesday gave the green light for the legislative proposal to modify the law aimed at improving the quality of life of people with ALS and other highly complex and irreversible pathologies to be processed through the single reading procedure, with the aim of subsequently elevating it to the Congress Bureau.
The initiative, jointly promoted by Junts, ERC, the Comuns, and the CUP, went ahead with the unanimous support of all groups in the Catalan Chamber.
Following this decision, a period will open to present amendments to both the entirety and the articles of the text. In a future Parliament plenary, the definitive debate on the proposal will be held, which, if it receives final approval, will be sent to the Congress Bureau for further processing and, if applicable, submitted for debate.
Strengthening of rights and benefits
The central objective of the proposal is to strengthen the right of these patients to continuous, comprehensive, and specialized healthcare, in response to the "dysfunctions" detected in the application of the norm approved in 2024 by the lower house.
The text proposes that essential benefits for maintaining vital functions, such as mechanical ventilation or assisted feeding, cease to be considered social services, so that they can be compatible with other aid from the dependency system and, in general, be outside co-payment regimes.
Likewise, it incorporates changes to ensure that disability degree review procedures do not entail the suspension or delay in effective access to the rights, benefits, and services recognized by law.
The proposal also suggests modifying the royal decree to establish that the minimum amount of economic benefits from the dependency system for patients with grade III+ be 3,200 euros.