Council seeks rise in clinic fees

Council seeks rise in clinic fees

JAKARTA (JP): Speaker of the City Council, M.H. Ritonga, urged
yesterday for people not to object to a plan to raise health
service fees at Puskesmas (community health centers) throughout
the city.

Ritonga said it is important to review the plan objectively
and conduct comprehensive research on the plan.

"The plan seems unfair if we view the percentage of the rise
only, but if we review it carefully we will see that the fees are
still much cheaper than those in public hospitals," Ritonga told
reporters.

He explained this means city administration is still
subsidizing all community health centers.

Ritonga said it is necessary to increase the fees because the
current fee was set in 1985.

"The current fee was set 10 years ago and it is about time to
increase it because, ideally, it should have been increased every
year," Ritonga said, adding that it is impossible to change a
Provincial Decree every year.

The city council is still reviewing the proposal to change the
decree.

The City Health Office announced on Wednesday it has proposed
to city administration that the fee for health services at
Puskesmas be raised from Rp 300 to Rp 900, 300 percent, per
patient.

The office said the proposed increase was made because of
price rises in medical equipment and other facilities.

Many people have objected to the plan, saying that most of
people who visited Puskesmas are poor people who cannot
otherwise afford to see a doctor and many of them cannot even
afford to pay the current fee.

Ritonga also said it is not necessary to argue that the rise
will put poor people at a disadvantage because the government has
already set up a system for the poor to get free medical
assistance.

"The government has set up a health card program, in which
poor people will get free medical treatment if they have health
cards issued by subdistrict offices," he said.

Ritonga supported a proposal, raised by the Indonesian
Consumers Protection Foundation, to finance Puskesmas from
compensation paid by 40 private hospitals in the city, that have
not yet fulfilled the requirement.

"That's a very good proposal. But besides that I urged the
city administration to take firm action against private hospitals
that failed to obey the regulation," Ritonga said.

However, Ritonga added, the city council should discuss the
plan with the community before approving the city
administration's proposal to change the provincial decree on
health service fees at Puskesmas. (yns)