Health Expert Says No Country Is Bankrupt Because It Guarantees Health Services
22 October 2020
Merdeka.com - University of Indonesia health expert, Prof. Hasbullah Thabrany said that no country has gone bankrupt because it guarantees comprehensive health services for its population.
"Therefore, Indonesia does not need to worry if it has to bear public health services, based on available data, public health spending in the country in 2017 was only 1.4 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product," he said in Padang as reported by Antara, Thursday (22/22/2020). 10).
According to him, the more developed a country is, the higher the cost of health spending and in developed countries, more than half of public health spending comes from income taxes and the rest from social insurance.
"For developed countries such as the United States, health spending has reached 8.6 percent of GDP, Germany 8.7 percent of GDP and Britain 7.6 percent," he said.
He considered that because Indonesia has entered the category of a country with a medium per capita income, the cost of health spending should be bigger and increased as a measure of the government's political commitment to the community.
"All residents must be able to meet the basic needs of a decent life, one of which is if sick must be treated," he said.
He said if someone asked whether Indonesia was able to guarantee the cost of health services for all the people through the National Health Insurance program for the Healthy Indonesia Card, the answer was that God always creates risks that we can handle.
"Of course, JKN-KIS participant fees must be managed efficiently with the right implementation of quality and cost control," he said.
Regarding the question of why people who do not pay dues are not entitled to health services, he said this is an effort to educate the public that there are no rights without obligations.
"This is a basic principle that applies throughout the world, paying dues can get rights, but if you can't afford it, you can get help," he said.
He saw that so far, only a few who have not complied with paying dues and in the future can be assisted with the scheme of participants who receive contribution assistance.
