Arientha Primanita – Dozens of Jakarta residents protested in front of City Hall on Tuesday demanding that the city administration pay more attention to the needs of the poor.

Hendri Anggoro, a member of the Indonesian Poor People's League and the protest's coordinator, said his group was worried that the city administration would privatize the health sector.

Hendri noted that some city-owned hospitals had recently become general service agencies (BLUD), which enabled them to unilaterally decide on the fees they charged.

"Once a hospital becomes a BLUD, it has the right to determine its patient fees because they don't have subsidy from the government," he said.

Hendri also said that the health services for poor people in Jakarta remained underdeveloped and the city administration was inconsistent in providing health services to the lower socioeconomic sectors.

"Jakarta is 482 years old now, but the health services for its people are still far from adequate," he said. "The city administration does not really care that some hospitals reject poor patients."

Dien Ermawati, head of the city's health agency, said the city would not privatize the regional hospitals.

"We will take over and change nonregional hospitals, like Haji Hospital, into a BLUD," she said, rejecting allegations that the hospitals would have the authority to determine patient fees.

Dien said the fees were controlled by the health agency, based on a 2006 health regulatio n.

"For a third-class room, the patients still need to pay Rp 20,000 [$1.90] per night," she said.

During a plenary session on Tuesday, seven political factions in the city council – the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB), Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and the United Development Party (PPP) – agreed to endorse the draft of a bylaw on the regional health system.

With the new bylaw, the city's lawmakers expect the city administration to increase the health services for Jakarta's citizens, especially for the poor.

The regulation guarantees that citizens – including recipients of state-sponsored health insurance for poor families – would not be rejected from hospitals. Any hospital found violating the law would be punished.

The bylaw states that public hospitals, specialized hospitals, state-owned hospitals and private hospitals that have signed an agreement to treat poor people with insurance cards will be punished if they reject a patient referred by a community health center.

Violators could face at least six months detention or a fine of Rp 50 million.