I

ndonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) demanded Friday the government improve its database on the poor who are eligible for the community health insurance scheme (Jamkesmas).

"The data, which was released by the Health Ministry in 2008, contains a lot of inaccuracies that exclude many poor people from the list of eligible candidates for the government-run health insurance scheme," ICW researcher Ratna Kusuma told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

Ratna criticized the government for only increasing the number of those eligible for the scheme without making any effort to develop a database on Indonesia's poor people.

The government plans to expand Jamkesmas recipients to also include inmates, natural disaster victims, orphans and neglected elderly.

The Health Ministry's head of Jamkesmas Center, Chalik Masulili, said Thursday that recommendations from penitentiary wardens would temporarily open access to sick prisoners wanting to receive hospital treatment until the his ministry generated valid data on the number of poor people in penitentiaries eligible to receive the scheme.

"Most of the inmates do not have ID cards but if the wardens issue their recommendations, there should be no problems."

"We expect the data to be completed in the next two or three months," he told the Post on the sidelines of the ceremonial to signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will provide Jamkesmas to inmates.

Health Minister Endang Sri Rahayu Sedyaningsih and Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar signed the MoU together with representatives from the Coordinating People's Welfare Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, and the Social Services Ministry.

Patrialis said that before the Health Ministry launched the Jamkesmas expansion, penitentiaries had assumed responsibilities with its limited facilities and budget capacity, for the sick inmates.

"Only poor prisoners will be eligible for the Jamkesmas scheme," he said.

"Inmates assumed to be rich, like drug abusers and corrupt officials, will not be eligible."

Due to the limited health capacity provided by penitentiaries, Endang said: "any sick prisoners can now get hospital services through the Jamkesmas scheme after being recommended by their wardens."

"All government-run hospitals are ready to treat inmates as long as they are recommended by wardens."

Director general of penitentiaries at the justice and human rights ministry, Untung Sugiyono, said around 90 percent of 140,000 prisoners from 427 penitentiaries across the country would be included in the scheme.

"I have talked to wardens from all over the country to ensure the proper implementation of the program," he told the Post.

As for updating the database, Chalik said it would be done after the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) conducted the 2010 census.

The 2008 data estimates there are some 76.4 million poor eligible for the Jamkesmas scheme.

Chalik said the budget for Jamkesmas would be increased from Rp 4.6 trillion (US$485.74 million) this year to Rp 5.125 trillion next year.