City's poor to get free health care

City's poor to get free health care

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

In an effort to improve the city administration's poverty
alleviation scheme, the City Council plans to issue a special
card that will enable its holders to enjoy free, or at least
affordable, education and medical treatment.

"The council will ask the administration to upgrade the
existing database on poor families in the capital. We expect the
database to be completed in the first semester of 2005 so those
families can obtain the cards immediately that will attest to
their financial condition," Ahmad Heryawan of Commission E, which
oversees people's welfare, said on Thursday.

The council also suggested the new database be verified
annually to make sure that they receive the subsidy from both the
city administration and the central government.

Heryawan further said that the council intended that the new
scheme give various discounts for education and medical services
based on the recipients' poverty level, the criteria for which
will be determined later.

"Under this scheme, some of the poor can have discount of 25
percent, 50 percent, or 75 percent, while the poorest will not
pay at all," he said.

He estimated between one million and 1.5 million Jakarta
residents would be classified as disadvantaged based on their low
access to education and health services. Jakarta has a population
of 8.3 million at night, and about 12 million during office
hours, as many live in the satellite cities outside Jakarta, but
work in the city.

He lamented that the current database of poor families at the
administration fell did not cover all the needy so that much of
the subsidy failed to reach the targeted families.

"We estimate that currently the poverty alleviation scheme
only covers 20 percent of the actual poor families in the city,"
he said.

Separately, National Commission on Child Protection chairman
Seto Mulyadi said that the commission had proposed to the
administration that it scrap the administration fee for Jakarta
residents to obtain birth certificates.

"We have asked Governor Sutiyoso, as part of the campaign in
observance of the National Children Day on July 23, to scrap the
fee, especially for street children and children from poor
families who have no money to process their birth certificates,"
Seto said.