Households feel the pinch of rising health costs

Households feel the pinch of rising health costs

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

With the fuel price increases, the tsunami disaster in December
and reports of bird flu and polio, affordable, quality health
care is out of reach for more and more people, resulting in the
reemergence of diseases that have disappeared completely in other
countries.

In response, activists urged the House of Representatives on
Friday to revise Law No. 23/1992 on health care to put more of an
emphasis on the government's obligation to provide affordable and
quality health care.

Community health expert Mahlil Ruby from the University of
Indonesia said the government spent US$9.30 per capita, per year
on public health, far below the $35 to $40 standard set by the
World Health Organization.

In comparison, Malaysia spends $95 per capita, per year on
public health.

Households in Indonesia pay the majority of the medical costs,
with the rest covered by insurance companies or employers.

"With or without the fuel price hike, money for public health
must be provided," Mahlil said during a discussion hosted by the
Women's Health Forum.

There are no clear regulations governing the allocation of
government funds for health care, and much of the money is late
in arriving or does not arrive at all.

"Regional budgets are mostly allocated for civil servants
instead of for nutrition and public health. No wonder we still
find cases of malnutrition in the country," Mahlil said.

Oncologist Zubairi Djoerban from Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital said that in the wake of outbreaks of bird flu, polio
and dengue fever, the government should do more to provide a
healthy environment.

"The environment includes offices, houses and schools. There
should be, for example, clear regulations on smoke-free areas in
public areas, immunization and waste disposal," he said.

Activists have long pushed for a revision of the health law,
which they say is vague, outdated, discriminatory and
incompatible with other regulations.

The law, for example, does not elaborate on reproductive
health services or reproductive health rights, alternative
medicine or technological advances such as genetic engineering,
cloning and stem cell research.

The law is also incompatible with the 1945 Constitution,
which stipulates that the state is responsible for providing
health care for the poor, the elderly and orphans.

Legislator Mariani Akib Baramuli, who heads the House's
working committee on health care, said the House had approved
amendments to the law last year.

"But everybody was busy campaigning for the election so they
were abandoned. Now it is stuck in Commission IX for education,
health and labor, whose legislators have a different perception
of the issue," she said.