Written by Administrator Friday, 08 January 2010 16:46 1818 Hits
Residents Question New Free Healthcare Program
Desy Nurhayati and Luh De Suriyani
A free healthcare program recently launched by the Bali provincial administration has been criticized by patients who say the program does not cover necessary services.
Some patients considered the so-called Bali Mandara healthcare program (JKBM), which provides free healthcare services for all registered residents in the province, to be discriminative and overcomplicated in terms of administrative procedures.
“The program only covers a few services. It cannot be applied in emergency cases, including traffic accidents,” said I Wayan Sukra, a patient at Sanglah Hospital. Sukra was queuing at the hospital’s counter to pay for the treatment of his sister, who was hit by motorcycle.
The JKBM can only be claimed by those who hold a resident’s identity card issued by the Bali administration. Those who want the free services should bring a recommendation letter issued by a subdistrict head, stating they were not covered by other healthcare schemes.
“In emergency situations, it’s impossible to take care of the letter,” Sukra said.
Launched Jan. 1, the massive Bali Mandara program was named after Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika’s tagline when he campaigned for the gubernatorial post.
The word Mandara reflects the several qualities: Mandiri (self-reliance), Aman (safety), Damai (peace) and Sejahtera (prosperity).
The Health Agency said patients using JKBM were only provided with Class 3 service at state-run hospitals, the lowest level of service.
The services can only be accessed at state-run hospitals and community health centers, and are unavailable at private hospitals.
Civil servants, as well as the police and armed forces, are not entitled to the program as they are already covered by the government’s Askes health insurance.
Health Agency head Nyoman Sutedja said this program cost the administration Rp 181 billion per year, with Rp 100 billion provided by the province and the remaining Rp 81 billion shouldered by eight regencies.
Out of the nine regencies in Bali, only Jembrana refused to join the program, saying the regency had run a similar program for a couple of years.
This program aimed to cover 2.5 million out of the total 3.5 million residents in Bali, Sutedja said, adding one million residents had been covered by other healthcare schemes.
Sutedja said the program does not include ambulance services, accidents at workplace, traffic accidents, drug addiction, autopsy, chemotherapy, circumcision and congenital paralysis.
It also excludes general check-ups, heart surgery, organ transplantation, as well as medical treatment given during a disaster.
“Patients infected with HIV/AIDS are also not entitled to this program, because they have to consume anti-retroviral drugs during their lifetime, it’s too costly,” Sutedja said.
Yusuf Rey Noldy, a counselor for HIV/AIDS patients, criticized this exclusion.
“This is unfair. It will further hurt HIV/AIDS patients that have always been stigmatized.”
During the first days since JKBM commenced, the program has not been widely disseminated among state-run hospitals.
Sanglah management said they had yet to inform the patients about the program since they were still waiting for more detailed procedures from the provincial administration to implement the program.
“But we will not neglect patients, even if the procedures are quite complicated,” said Sanglah’s head of medical service Lanang Suarthana.
Lanang said the hospital doubted the provincial administration would be able to fulfill its financial obligation as a reimbursement to all costs covered by the hospital under the program. He cited that the provincial administration currently still owed Rp 11.5 billion to the hospital, 80 percent of which were spent on drug procurement.
Besides in Sanglah, the JKBM has not been widely used by patients in Wangaya Hospital.
Setiawati Hartawan, deputy head of medical service at the hospital, said so far only six patients had made use of the free healthcare program.
Setiawati said patients should pay some money as a deposit if they failed to fulfill administrative requirements for the free services.
Source : The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Fri, 01/08/2010 10:05 AM | Bali, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/08/residents-question-new-free-healthcare-program.html (accessed 1/8/2010 4:43:22 PM)