Life is Healthy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 02/09/2010 8:52 AM

Poor people should be able to immediately access health services by only showing their identity cards, once executing agencies are set up, activists say.

The government plans to set up the National Social Security Agency (BPJS) in line with the 2004 Social Security Law, and the Hospital Monitoring Agency (BPRS), based on the 2009 Hospital Law.

Usman Soemantri, the Health Ministry’s head of health security, said Monday that establishing the monitoring and executing agencies required extensive processes.

“First, you need regulations to establish a monitoring body, and once they are established, it does not guarantee that all the problems will be solved.”

Febri Hendri, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW)’s senior researcher, said the government should establish the agencies soon.

“The BPJS will hopefully ensure that people, especially the poor, will not have to be hassled with administrative procedures or be forced to borrow money for medical treatments,” he said Monday during a meeting with Health Ministry officials in South Jakarta.

The government is using the Jamkesmas health insurance scheme to provide health services for the poor. Those with Jamkesmas cards are exempted from any payments at state-owned hospitals and partnering private hospitals.

ICW’s Ratna Kusumaningsih said despite promises of wide access to health services there were still people who asked to pay for treatment even if they were using the Jamkesmas.

The meeting’s participants that day included two poor Tangerang residents, Aswanah and Amsiah, who claimed government hospitals had treatedly them unfairly.

Aswanah was charged Rp 10 million (US$1,000), half the full price, for an eye operation, despite having a Jamkesmas card.

Amsiah, who is suffering from an unidentified growth on her stomach, said although she did not have a Jamkesmas card, she tried to obtain documents to help ease the bills.

However, when asking for assistance from the local health agency, she was allegedly told she had to be hospitalized first before requesting a price cut, while she was afraid of being asked for payment in advance.

“The hospital said I should consult my family when I told them I didn’t have any money... I can’t work [with this disease].”

According to last year’s Citizen Report Card survey by ICW, there were 13 hospitals in Greater Jakarta that discriminate against patients who used health insurance systems or those that refused to allow patients to return home before paying their bills.

Another official, Chalik Masulili, said by 2012 patients should only have to show their single identity numbers to access health services.

But he said covering single identity numbers for all Indonesians took time, and the process might be finished by 2012. (dis)