House told to reject health bill

House told to reject health bill

JAKARTA: The House of Representatives (DPR) should reject draft health laws relating to community health services and medical profession judicature, as they are unfair, the Legal Aid Institute on Health (LBH Kesehatan) has urged.

"The two draft bills have to be rejected because they will protect only the interests of a handful of groups of people, not the public in general," LBH Kesehatan head Iskandar Sitorus said on Monday.

The draft law on community health service assurance was being deliberated by the House, while the draft law on medical profession judicature was about to be.

Sitorus said that the demand for the rejection of the two draft laws was made because Law No. 23/1992 on Health, enacted over the last nine years, had turned out to have curtailed the people's right to health treatment.

Since the enactment of the Law on Health, there had not been any articles supporting its enactment, he said.

The Ministry of Health should provide detailed instructions for the implementation of the law, rather than advancing two new laws, he added. -- Antara