'If you can't pay don't have babies'

'If you can't pay don't have babies'

JAKARTA: The husband of Rodoyana Siburian, 30, reported the
Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) to the police on
Wednesday, accusing the hospital management of holding his wife
and baby hostage until he paid the bills.

Pamompoan Samosir, 40, a resident of Pondok Kopi, East
Jakarta, said that his wife delivered their baby at the hospital
on May 24. The hospital bill they had paid was about Rp 3.27
million.

He said that he had shown the hospital the letter from the
subdistrict administration certifying that he was poor and could
not pay the bill.

"But one of the nurses just said that I should not have had a
child if I could not afford the bills," he was quoted as saying
by Detikcom.

His lawyer Nia Yuniarsih from the Legal Aid Institute on
Health (LBH Kesehatan) deplored the hospital's policies on
providing health services for the poor. -- JP