Health service for the poor

Health service for the poor

From Bisnis Indonesia

The parents of a premature and ailing baby recently had to spend 11 hours seeking medical treatment in five hospitals before finally being admitted in Harapan Bunda Hospital. Earlier, a scavenger had carry his dead child to Bogor because he could not afford to pay a central Jakarta hospital's ambulance fee.

A member of the House of Representatives' Commission IV in charge of health affairs said he would summon Minister of Health Siti Fadillah Supari to explain these cases.

Iskandar Sitorus, a founder of the Legal Aid Institute for Health, said the programs for poor people's health care offered by the government were all talk and no action.

Part of the money saved cutting the fuel subsidies in March this year was meant for poor communities' health services. So where have all the compensation funds gone?

Any concrete steps taken to help the poor, however small they may be, would be far more beneficial than discourse and polemics.

LUKMAN HAKIM Jakarta