The health situation of persons with disabilities in Lebanon is inseparable from the health situation of Lebanese citizens in general, despite the fact that affirmative action is enshrined in applicable laws, particularly Law 220/2000 on their rights. Their additional needs require greater health services than those of other citizens.

It appears that the 23 years since the issuance of the aforementioned legislation have not significantly improved the level of health services provided to persons with disabilities. This paper does not aim to shed light on the failure of successive governments to implement the law, nor on the objective circumstances that have hindered this in a highly complex political, security, economic, and social environment over the past decades. Rather, it sheds light on the problematic nature of addressing the issue of disability and the health situation of persons with disabilities, on the one hand, and, through its recommendations, proposes a vision for elevating this reality, which is limited to a few services, to the level of social protection, in accordance with the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).

Before beginning, it is necessary to highlight a conceptual problem: the Ministry of Public Health’s health services to citizens with disabilities, whether directly or through social security funds, the private sector, or civil society organizations, operate under the umbrella of the medical-clinical and charitable-pastoral models for dealing with disabled citizens. This model stems from an outdated vision that limited disability to the World Health Organization’s 1980 definition.

The rights-based disability movement in Lebanon is pursuing the concept of “social health protection for persons with disabilities,” an advanced concept adopted by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and elevated by working papers produced by disabled activists within the framework of social protection. This vision adopts the social model for dealing with disability issues, whereby disabled citizens are freed from restrictions to obtain comprehensive health coverage, which is considered a basic right. Failure to obtain this coverage results in their isolation from society and deprives them of other rights, such as access to education, employment, and participation in public life. In short, as long as the social model for dealing with the issues of persons with disabilities sees disability not in the disabled person himself, but in the society that places obstacles in his way and hinders him, then receiving health services is necessary, but it is not an end in itself. The executive authority must cover the entire health file of the disabled person, according to a single document, which is the personal disability card issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs, as this coverage is one of the obvious necessities that must be provided for the integration of the disabled person into his society and investing in his energies like any other citizen. This is one of the main features of social health protection.