Deputy Council Speaker Triwisaksana, who also heads the capital’s new Regional Legislation Board, said recently the bylaw in its present form stipulated a ceiling of 15 percent for healthcare.

“We want the city to increase the quality of health insurance for low-income residents through an amendment of the article on the budget allocation limit,” he said.

“We plan to increase the minimum allocation to 15 percent of the annual city budget.”

The 2009 health system bylaw, passed last June, was the subject of a heated debate among city councilors and officials.

Deputy Governor Prijanto questioned the ceiling of 15 percent, saying it gave the impression that a bigger allocation for healthcare was not necessary.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said the city would try to increase the amount in stages as it saw fit.

The 2009 Health Law stipulates all provincial administrations must allocate at least 10 percent of their budget toward healthcare.

Jakarta’s healthcare allocation has been less than 8 percent for the past three years.

This year’s allocation is Rp 1.95 trillion (US$216 million) or 7.9 percent of the city’s total budget of
Rp 24.67 trillion.

In 2009, the administration allocated Rp 1.7 trillion or 7.6 percent of its Rp 22.420 trillion budget, down from 7.8 percent in 2008.

Triwisaksana said the legislation board would try to get the state insurance company to take over the city’s health agency in verifying the eligibility of low-income applicants seeking free coverage under the city-subsidized healthcare scheme.

“The health agency is currently too occupied with the verification work, which has led to a delay in payments to hospitals, which in turn has resulted in growing reluctance among these hospitals to serve patients from low-income families,” Triwisaksana said.

He said there were currently around 50,000 patients from this group undergoing treatment at hospitals across Jakarta.

The state insurance company on board, he went on, was expected to help streamline the paperwork to ensure no referral hospitals would reject low-income patients.

Adang Bachtiar, head of health policy at the University of Indonesia’s community health department, said a 15 percent minimum would still not be enough to meet Jakarta residents’ healthcare needs.

“I fear the city will just rest on its laurels after reaching the 15 percent mark,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said Jakarta should seek to allocate around 20 percent of the city budget or 5 percent of its GDP toward healthcare.

Adang also called on the authorities to get serious about health issues faced by the urban poor, stemming from factors such as high population density, poverty, scarcity of clean water and a stressful urban lifestyle.

“The city shouldn’t just focus on treating the symptoms, but also the causes of these problems,” he said.

He added indicators of a healthy city included a low crime rate, low pollution, and economic growth enjoyed by all residents.

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