Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Critics have urged the House of Representatives to delay the endorsement of the health bill, now dragging on for nine years, saying it was an effort to shift the government's responsibility to provide public healthcare services onto the people themselves.
A discussion held Sunday also highlighted the failure of the bill's latest draft to guarantee healthcare services for the poor and workers' rights to financial support from their employers in work-related health problems.
Ratna Kusumaningsih, from Indonesia Corruption Watch's (ICW) public services monitoring division, said at the discussion that the health bill only emphasized the people's need to take care of themselves, but not the government's responsibility to provide affordable quality healthcare services.
"This is a step back from the current health law (the 1992 Law on Health), which states that the government is responsible for providing healthcare services to its citizens," she said.
"When they say (in the latest health bill draft) that people are obliged to take care of their health, what's the definition and limitation of 'obliged'? Do the government and the House intend to liberalize the healthcare sector?"
ICW researcher Febri Hendri questioned the objective of Article 6(1) of the bill, which states, "Every person is obliged to take part in a social health insurance program."
"This sounds like an attempt to undermine the 2004 Law on the National Social Security System, which rules on the health insurance scheme for the poor, now called Jamkesmas," Febri said.
Ari Sunarijati, from the Reformed Federation of Workers' Unions Across Indonesia, said the bill, with its articles on health efforts in the workplace, only mentioned that "workplace health efforts are meant to enable workers to live healthily and free of health disorders and adverse impacts from work".
Ari said the term "enable" was barely enough to protect workers from work-related health problems, because it made protecting workers from work-related ailments optional rather than compulsory for employers.
Another article in the bill deemed contentious rules on abortion, which requires an emergency status to allow a pregnant woman to undergo an abortion, and threatens violators with a maximum 15 years in jail and fines of up to Rp 10 billion (US$1 million).
Ratna also questioned Article 78 of the bill, which forbids people having communicable disease from infecting others.
"It's not clear; if one has a flu, for instance, and then coughs or sneezes and unintentionally infects others around, is one then subject to the maximum five years in jail and Rp 100 million in fines?" she asked.
Ratna also expressed suspicion that the deliberation of the bill, the first draft of which was submitted in 2000, had been closed to the public and sped up due to "certain groups' interests".
"We recommend the House delay the passing of the bill into law, and pay more attention to the contentious articles we've highlighted," she said, adding the House was planning to endorse the bill by Tuesday.