Healthcare scheme moves ahead despite critics

Monday, February 1, 2010 11:39 AM
Healthcare scheme moves ahead despite critics

Desy Nurhayati ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Mon, 02/01/2010 10:55 AM  |  Bali

Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika admitted that the provincial administration faced difficulties and complaints in rolling out the Bali Mandara healthcare scheme (JKBM) and promised to continuously evaluate to improve the free program.

The governor spoke Saturday to residents during a monthly public forum held in Banjar Poh Gading in North Denpasar, during which residents asked questions and criticize the administration’s programs.

“We still get complaints from patients and hospitals. There are also certain parties with political motives who want this program to fail. But we are going ahead with it despite the critics,” Pastika said.

“We will conduct thorough evaluation, especially in the first three months. We will continue to address any points of improvement.”

Launched at the beginning of the year, the JKBM will target 2,536,886 residents in the province who are not covered by any healthcare insurance scheme.

Only residents holding identity cards issued by the Bali administration are entitled to receive the service.

Patients can use the JKBM at eight state-run hospitals, 130 community health centers, Indera Hospital, Bangli Psychiatric Hospital and Sanglah Hospital.

Under the scheme, patients are provided with class 3 facilities, the lowest level of service.

Pastika said the number of residents who requested services offered by the program grew, reaching almost 9,000 during the first month, and has cost the administration around Rp 5 billion. The total amount allocated to the program is Rp 181 billion.

The cost is shared by the provincial and regency administrations, with Rp 100 billion provided by the province and the remaining Rp 81 billion by seven regencies and one municipality.

Jembrana regency is the only region that has refused to join the program, claiming it has been running a similar program for the last few years.

The administration granted Rp 123.2 billion to state-run hospitals in participating regencies.

At the forum, Ngurah Wijaya, head of Pemecutan subdistrict, said residents complained about the complicated application process.

“They said they could not go directly to hospital, but had to obtain a referral letter from a community health center,” Wijaya said.

Pastika explained that, except for emergency cases, a community health center referral letter was needed to prevent a surge of patients at hospitals.

The provincial administration allocated Rp 48 billion from this year’s provincial budget to develop community health centers, and is currently assessing which centers will receive the funds.

To improve JKBM, the governor said the administration would consider increasing workers salaries at state-run hospitals, as they had to cope with an increased number of patients using the free healthcare scheme.

“We will also continue to evaluate categories of treatment that can be covered by JKBM,” Pastika said, in response to a resident asking whether dialysis was covered.

The administration said JKBM does not include ambulance services, accidents in the workplace, traffic accidents, drug addiction, autopsies, chemotherapy, circumcision and congenital paralysis. It also excludes general check ups, heart surgery, organ transplantation and medical treatment given during a disaster.

People with HIV/AIDS can have access to the program, but only for treating related infections, such as diarrhea. They are not entitled to use the program for antiretrovirals.

Sumber: The Jakarta Post