Doctors and insurers urge a review of AIDS laws
Doctors and insurers urge a review of AIDS laws
JAKARTA (JP): Doctors and an insurance company are urging the
government to review labor laws to help ease the AIDS problem
which will inevitably affect the work force.
"Our labor regulations practically prevent the business
sector, especially the health insurance industry, to give
assistance in dealing with the Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS)," said Dr. Kartono Mohammad, chairman of the
Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), during a seminar on the
AIDS disease and the private sector here Thursday.
Government figures say that at the end of last month there
were 213 cases of AIDS in Indonesia, which has more than doubled
from 92 in last September. The government does not count the HIV
positive figures.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which co-
sponsored the seminar, the global economy will loose at least
US$350 billion to the direct and indirect costs of AIDS by the
year 2000.
Current laws virtually allow companies to dismiss workers
found having "self-inflicted diseases" or "dangerous and
contagious sickness", Kartono said.
"HIV and AIDS can be easily interpreted by owners of companies
as fitting into those debatable classifications," he said.
The doctor, a well-known AIDS awareness campaigner, also
stated that Indonesia lacked ruling which could prevent
discriminative treatments toward HIVs and AIDS patients.
"We don't have laws regulating confidentiality and disability,
with which doctors and insurance companies can prevent employees
from being sacked for contracting a certain disease," Kartono
said.
Dr. Alan Emery, an AIDS consultant to the American government,
encouraged a constant review of laws and social customs to deal
with the deadly disease.
"In reality, the efforts to deal with AIDS frequently run
contrary to traditional conventions," he told the seminar.
Insurers
During a press-conference held after the seminar, Stephen T.
Moskey, a director of Aetna International-- a multi-national
American insurance firm which co-sponsored the seminar --
explained that a certain legal system is required to allow
insurers, particularly those which operate through companies, to
cover HIVs and AIDS.
"That's why, AIDS coverage by insurers, especially in Asia,
needs government help," Moskey said, adding that Aetna already
operates in Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Moskey claimed that Aetna does not treat AIDS coverage "any
different from other health-related policies".
He said his firm's operation is founded on American laws which
guarantee the clients' anonymity which protect their jobs from
the employers.
Moskey also said that when the patients will have to be
treated in the hospital or undergo home-treatment, they are
protected by laws which regulate the terms of disability.
As a result, companies cannot arbitrarily dismiss their
workers on the basis of their illness, he said.
Moskey estimated that on average, the costs for treatments of
early stage HIVs hover around $5000 to $7000 per year. Treatments
for AIDS in its "terminal stage" cost an average of $20,000 per
year.
"One way to push costs down is encouraging home-treatments,"
he said.
All the speakers at the seminar agreed that the best way to
deal with AIDS is prevention. (04)