Jakarta – Mustaqim, 44, was waiting for his turn to be examined at the Tebet community health center (puskesmas) in South Jakarta over the weekend. "My eyes hurt and I've come to get them checked," he told The Jakarta Post while taking off his sunglasses to show his sore eyes.
The resident of Manggarai Utara said it was nothing serious "but I caught the flu as well", trying to be as convincing as possible about his poor health.
The real reason for his visit to the puskesmas, he admitted later, was to find out whether he could get the free medical examination just by showing his ID card as promised by Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo earlier.
"It didn't really matter if I ended up paying for the examination. I just wanted to know if it really was free," said the ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver.
Last week, the Jokowi administration launched the Jakarta Health Card program that allows all city residents to access free medical services at the city's community health centers and hospitals.
The administration distributed 3,000 health cards in low-income areas such as Tambora in West Jakarta, Pademangan in North Jakarta and Manggarai in South Jakarta.
Jokowi expects about 4.7 million Jakartans will have the cards that will entitle them to free health services in all puskesmas or third-class facilities in hospitals across the capital by 2013.
Residents who have not yet obtained the health cards can also get the free treatment by showing their ID cards or family cards as long as they are not already covered by health insurance.
Rusminah, 36, a mother of three, went to Tebet Puskesmas to get an IUD kit and she was dealt with for free by showing her ID card.
"I'm happy that I can get the family planning service for free. Without this health card program, I'd have to pay around Rp 17,000 [US$1.72] to get the IUD kit," said the wife of a factory worker. "I feel touched, I mean, I've never got anything for free," she told the Post.
Mustaqim and Rusminah were among the many Jakarta residents who went to puskesmas just to check out the much-vaunted free healthcare program.
Tebet Puskesmas official, Sutoyo, said that he hadn't calculated the number of visitors that day but he said that the line seemed to be longer than the days before the program was launched.
He said that all Jakarta residents could avail of free services, including dental treatment and inpatient facilities. "Any facilities that are provided by the puskesmas can be accessed freely by every Jakarta resident," he said.
The situation was similar at Manggarai Puskesmas, where the center head, Sindang Marlina, said the number of patients increased significantly after the program was launched.
"Usually we only handle around 50 to 60 patients in a day. Today we had 112 patients, and 68 of them received the service for free," she said. "Some of the patients did not suffer any health problems but came here just to check whether they could get free treatment," she added, smiling.
However, the program faced criticism as the administration has not yet reimbursed payments claimed by hospitals that provided similar free healthcare in the program initiated by previous governor Fauzi Bowo; the Gakin card program.
Pasar Rebo General Hospital spokesman Deddy Suryadi told kompas.com that the city administration still owed Rp 5.5 billion to the hospital as of this year. Deddy said that the delayed payment complicated the hospital's operational activities because they needed the money to run their healthcare facilities.
As reported earlier, the administration expects to spend about Rp 2.9 trillion on health next year, Rp 900 billion of which will be used to finance the health card schemes.
According to Sindang, all the services provided at the puskesmas will be reimbursed by the administration every month. "I don't know for sure the mechanism of the reimbursement, I guess we just have to wait and see at the end of this month," she said. (nad)