Disadvantaged demand free health service
Disadvantaged demand free health service
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
It looked like just another rally on Wednesday, when about 50
people holding cardboard posters stood inside the Ministry of
Health compound in South Jakarta, chanting their demands.
All other components of a rally were also there; the reporters
who were taking notes and pictures, and the police, who were
blocking the protesters from entering the building.
But this rally was the first time poor Jakartans had marched
to demand their right to access to free health services as
promised by the government.
And the protesters are in dire need of health services.
Umsiah joined the protest although her neck was swollen, the
pain sometimes so unbearable she could not sleep at night.
"I take traditional medicine to ease the pain," she said.
About two weeks ago she was denied health care from Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta although she had
produced a letter from her subdistrict that she could not afford
to pay for medical treatment and was classified as poor. The
letter, she said, was issued by the subdistrict head in Depok,
where she lives.
Couple Djuhara and Rumiati brought home their one-year-old
daughter Sintiya, who was being treated for three months at
state-owned Persahabatan Hospital in Rawamangun, East Jakarta,
for inflammation of the brain membrane.
The parents, who had letters from the North Kelapa Gading
subdistrict chief and the City Social Welfare Agency, were
relieved of hospital expenses. However, they still had to pay for
the medicine not listed on the free medicine list approved in the
government's social safety net program.
They had spent up to Rp 3 million (US$353) up until November,
when Sintiya's case hit the newspapers.
"After that, all medicines were provided for free," said
Rumiati.
Demanding that the ministry return all the money they should
not have paid, the protesters refused to meet anybody but
Minister Achmad Sujudi himself.
Eventually, the director general of medical services, Eddie
Naydial Roesdal, met the protesters to represent the minister
whom he said was not in the office.
He said that anyone with only a Gakin (poor family) card was
eligible for free health services. "One card will do," he said,
adding that drugs should be provided for free to Gakin holders.
Eddie and Faiq Bahfen, the ministry's head for legal and
organizations division, said the ministry would look into the 45
cases recorded by the Legal Aid Institute for Health (LBH
Kesehatan), who organized the protest.
Later in the day, the Minister told the press that the Rp 750
billion generated from the reduced fuel subsidy fund this year
was not enough to cover all of the medical services for the poor.
However, he said, such a health scheme for the poor would have
a lasting source of funds in the form of a health insurance
scheme that would be established by the government.