Free medical services available for the poor
JAKARTA (JP): Free maternity services and additional nutrition for babies are among facilities for the poor that are being funded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Minister of Health Farid A. Moeloek said on Tuesday.
He was addressing a hearing with House Commission VI for health, social welfare, population and women's issues.
The facilities are being extended as part of what is called a Protection Sector Development Program, the minister said.
"The program is designed to support the government's social safety net program," Farid added.
Farid explained the program is being supported by Rp 1.05 trillion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged a further Rp 360 billion in support in early October.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of poor in the country reached 79.9 million, or 40 percent of the total population, in June this year. Seventy percent of the poor have limited access to nutritious food and live in villages with inadequate medical services.
In April, United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) country representative Stephen J. Woodhouse warned of nutrition deficiency among the country's poor if food prices continued to soar.
He said that many Indonesians were facing critical conditions even before the crisis began last year. Unicef data at that time showed that eight million children under the age of five were seriously malnourished.
Since May, Farid said the ministry had received medical supplies worth US$ 37.6 million from Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Australia and non- governmental organizations in the United States.
He said that ADB aid would be used to provide health facilities in eight provinces, namely Central Java, South Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian Jaya. IMF funds will be used to assist a further 19 provinces.
The minister said the funds would reach the nation's poor through community health centers.
"Free health care in local community hospitals, free maternity care, and supplementary food and nutrition for babies aged between six and 12 months old are included," Farid added.
He said the facilities would be free for about a year, after which the ministry would examine whether people were able to pay for the services.
In addition to the above program, the ministry is continuing to provide poor families with modest assistance which is now worth less than $1 a year through the Public Health Care (JPKM) scheme. The scheme, which began in 1992, provides each poor family with an annual subsidy of Rp 10,000 for medical care.
Golkar's Rachmat Sentika questioned how the subsidy could possibly cover the needs of a family of four or five people.
He also questioned the transparency with which the IMF and ADB aid was being distributed, and queried the ability of community health centers to manage the funds.
Farid explained that the funds would be directly distributed to community health centers in rural areas through the state-run post office network, PT Pos Indonesia. The allocation of funds would be based on the number of poor people in each area, he added. Transparency was assured by institutional supervision and audits, he claimed.
Farid also stressed the ministry placed an emphasis on a preventative approach to help people survive the crisis rather than a curative approach. "Preventing illness is less expensive than curing it," he said, referring to the rocketing price of medicine.
He also recommended the use of traditional medicines as an alternative to seeking qualified medical help. He said there were around 850 species of plants and herbs in the country that could be used for medicinal purposes. (01)