O

n Jan. 1, Indonesia launched an ambitious national healthcare system to bring every citizen in the country under a unified government-managed program by 2019. This is a milestone in the history of Indonesia but one that the nation'€™s mainstream media either missed, ignored or failed to comprehend in terms of historical significance.

Anyone researching or writing the history of Indonesia'€™s universal health care 25 years from now couldn'€™t do worse than turning to the front pages of the nation'€™s prominent media, including those who bill themselves as a newspaper of record.

They won'€™t find anything in the Jan. 1 edition because there were no newspapers published on New Year'€™s Day. But a scan of the Jan. 2 front pages reveals the media'€™s general indifference toward what should have been a banner headline story. One or two papers ran the story on the front page, but not as their main headline.

Until they do some soul searching, journalists in Indonesia cannot claim to be writing the first draft of history.

Here is the significance of the story: For the first time since Indonesia'€™s independence in 1945, all citizens, without any exceptions, will have access to health care guaranteed by the state. On Wednesday, some 120 million people automatically came under the program, and everyone else will be registered by 2019. The healthcare program brings Indonesia closer to fulfilling the '€œsocial justice for all'€ principle in the state-ideology Pancasila and the constitutional mandate that every citizen has the right to enjoy a healthy life.

For any respectable media outlet to miss or ignore a big story like this is unforgivable. Thank God these editors were not in charge when Sukarno-Hatta proclaimed Indonesia'€™s independence in 1945, or when Sukarno and Soeharto fell from power in 1966 and 1998, respectively.

Why did they miss it?

One possible explanation is that most journalists, certainly editors who make newsroom decisions, already enjoy adequate health care, thus they failed to grasp the significance for the 86 million poor people who were automatically registered on New Year'€™s Day and who for the first time do not have to worry about not having access to doctors or medicine.

Since 2014 is an election year, the journalists may have been so obsessed with political stories that they missed the health care launching '€” or maybe they didn'€™t want to give positive coverage to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who launched the program on New Year'€™s Eve. Just days earlier, the media went ballistic when the President issued a decree giving generous healthcare coverage for his Cabinet ministers, including medical treatment abroad, only to revoke it after the media blowback.

Is the healthcare story too complicated to understand and report on? Or were the editors too busy celebrating New Year'€™s? Or did they get distracted by the story of a shoot-out between police and suspected terrorists on New Year'€™s Eve that stole most of the headlines on Jan. 2?

Whatever explanation they may have, it is an unforgivable journalistic error to have missed or ignored the healthcare story completely.

Given the lack of preparation, obviously there will be problems and maybe chaos in the early stages of this ambitious healthcare service. Part of the problem is ignorance among the public about the program (and the media should take part of the blame). But one area that the government and the caring media should be looking at is the supply side of the healthcare system.

Do we have adequate doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics and hospital rooms to provide health care for 250 million people? Have we invested enough in health human resources and infrastructure? And here is something that doctors and hospitals are asking: Will they be compensated adequately by the state for the services they are providing?

The government says Indonesia has 85,000 general practitioners (GP) and 25,000 specialist doctors, giving an overall ratio of one GP for 3,000 patients. While this apparently meets the UN standard, there is the question of unequal distribution of doctors across the archipelago.

The government says some 1,700 of 2,300 hospitals, both government and privately owned, have agreed to join the healthcare program.

With a total of about 230,000 hospital rooms nationwide, Indonesia is about 7,000 short of the ideal level. But with the low tariffs the government is paying the hospitals and doctors, will there be strong enough incentives to invest in new rooms and equipment?

Another pertinent question is whether the government is matching its health commitment with funding. The Rp 19.9 trillion (US$1.63 billion) allocated to the Health Ministry in 2014 pales in comparison to spending on defense and education, the two sectors that enjoy the largest chunk of government funding.

The government'€™s spending on health is also about a 10th of the Rp 210 trillion allocated for the fuel subsidy in 2014. Now, this is a hot political issue that the media should lap up and explore.

Perhaps they can make up for the poor job they have done in covering the launching of the national healthcare system.

'€” Endy M. Bayuni