Gosh, if only it were that easy! Funny that Franklin did not say anything about women and children, let alone babies and fetuses who are often the most vulnerable when it comes to health. Just look at three recent cases in the Jakarta-Tangerang-Bekasi (Jatabek) area.

Four-month-old baby Debora from Kalideres, West Jakarta, tragically died, allegedly because the hospital declined to give her adequate medical treatment as the parents could not afford the required deposit (see “Calls for negligence investigation in baby’s death” The Jakarta Post, Sept. 11)

Then there is Reny Wahyudi, 40, a woman from Bekasi, eight months pregnant and experiencing complications. Over the course of three days she went to six hospitals that all turned her away, allegedly because the hospitals’ intensive care units were full.

The seventh hospital finally accepted her and delivered the baby by caesarean. But by then it was too late: the baby died.

Closer to home, Dewi, a 44-year-old divorcee and neighbor of mine, is suffering from kidney problems and an enlarged heart. A slight, attractive woman, her face became puffed up from edema, and her arms and legs covered in alarmingly large purple bruises.

She is the backbone of her family, comprising three children and two aging parents with health issues of their own. She went to a government hospital, but as she did not have health insurance, she is now relying on alternative medicine to alleviate her illness.

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