40 million poor to get free health services

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's 40 million poor people may enjoy free health services if a bill drafted by the government gets the nod from members of the House of Representatives (DPR).

The bill, which is soon to be submitted to the House for deliberation, suggests that the government allocate up to Rp 3 trillion (US$360 million) annually to pay health insurance premiums for the country's poor.

The draft, which took the government two years to prepare, was finalized in a cabinet meeting chaired by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday.

"Under the proposed bill, the state is obliged to allocate funds from the budget to pay insurance premiums for the country's poor," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said after the cabinet meeting.

According to Jusuf, the government would still decide whether to give the money directly to regional administrations or to appoint an insurance company to manage the funds.

"Either way, the government will fully cover the insurance fees," Jusuf said.

The announcement of the scheme comes just months before the country holds its first direct presidential election on July 5, 2004. Should the election fail to produce a clear winner, a second round would be held in September.

The ministry of health had formulated the national health-insurance scheme as far back as 2001.

Under the scheme, called the National Health Insurance (JKN), each Indonesian citizen would be encouraged to obtain a health insurance card guaranteeing them basic medical care across the country.

The health-insurance scheme is part of the National Social Security System (SJSN) which will also cover life insurance and workers' welfare, as well as severance payments and pensions, as required by the amended 1945 Constitution.

Jusuf said to identify the poor, the government would use existing data from the National Statistics Agency (BPS), which just finished its national census in 2003.

In the cabinet meeting, the government also agreed to move ahead with its program to build low-cost housing complexes or apartments across the country.

The program, dubbed the "one million houses" project, is slated to begin as soon as possible. The government has allocated some Rp 628 billion to initiate the huge project.

"Should we provide housing for (the country's) six million homeless, we would need around Rp 15 trillion. We will cooperate with Bank Indonesia to use its liquidity excess to finance the project," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti said.

The first priority, according to Jusuf, was to set up 120,000 low-cost houses for civil servants by the end of this year.

Dorodjatun said the government and the central bank were developing a scheme for the housing project, including sharing the interest burden of those who wanted to buy the low-cost houses or apartments.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN), which will be disbanded next month, will provide land worth Rp 150 billion for the project.

Dorodjatun also said that along with the housing project, the government would introduce the Kampong Improvement Program, which would aim to develop 10,000 slum areas and restore 14.5 million shanty houses across the country.

"We will finalize the programs in the next two weeks," Dorodjatun said.