City to double health spending
City to double health spending
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The City Health Agency has proposed Rp 100 billion (US$10.99
million) be spent on a health care card scheme for poor families
in 2005, more than twice the amount in this year's city budget.
The Gakin card scheme would cover about 40 percent of
Jakarta's 8.3 million population, or about 3.32 million people,
agency head Abdul Chalik Masulili said on Thursday.
This year, with Rp 40 billion spent, only 5 percent of the
population held Gakin cards, or about 415,000 people.
Abdul said a Rp 21 billion fuel subsidy fund from the state
budget would help make up the difference.
"We have to increase the fund for health services for poor
families. Next year, our target will be much higher," he told The
Jakarta Post.
Masulili said the jump in the number of people targeted to
receive the service came after data from neighborhood units was
used to calculate the number of poor families in the city instead
of figures provided by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The administration had earlier been asked by the City Council
to upgrade the existing database on poor families in the capital.
The database is expected to be completed in the first half of
next year.
Masulili said local government agencies had been discussing
what the criteria was for poor people who deserved health
services.
"We will verify our list of those who deserve services with
the neighborhood unit chiefs," he said.
City Council deputy speaker Ahmad Heryawan had said earlier
the new Gakin card scheme would provide discounts for health
services based on the recipients' income levels and living
circumstances.
Under the proposed scheme, some people would qualify for
medical discounts of 25 percent, 50 percent, or 75 percent, while
the poorest of the poor would pay nothing at all.
Masulili said in total, the city was expected to allocate Rp
800 billion to the health sector next year. He did not provide a
cost breakdown.
The administration has proposed a hike in its overall budget
from Rp 12.26 trillion this year to Rp 13.93 trillion next year.
The draft budget will be deliberated by the administration and
the council in December.
The budget will be prioritized for the construction of the
busway corridors (Rp 515 billion), land acquisition for the East
Flood Canal construction (Rp 450 billion), maintenance of small
lakes and Angke and Ciliwung rivers (Rp 401.5 billion), the
construction of low-cost apartments (Rp 150 billion) and the
procurement of incinerators for waste treatment facilities (Rp
400 billion).