FAJAR.CO.ID — The Indonesian Parliament has approved the Health Bill (RUU) to become a Health Law on Tuesday (11/7). Even though it has been passed, the Health Law remains controversial and is rejected by various groups, including the Indonesian Doctors Association or IDI.
Some of the things that the community and health professional groups are concerned about from the recently passed Health Law include:
1. Elimination of Mandatory Spending
Chairman of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Mohammad Adib Khumaidi said the elimination of mandatory spending would further burden the public’s health costs. The reason is that improving the quality of health cannot be expected from programs carried out by local governments.
The loss of mandatory spending is also considered to affect many basic services at regional health facilities.
2. Foreign doctors are free to enter RI
The practice of foreign doctors is free to enter Indonesia and can be done without going through a professional organization. Foreign doctors who enter do not need to be examined again, for example by the Indonesian Doctors Association or the Indonesian Dentists Association.
3. Research Results for Foreign Interests
The Health Law allows research results from medicine to be used for foreign research purposes.
Meanwhile, from the changes in the Health Law, several improvements were made. Head of the Communications and Public Services Bureau of the Ministry of Health, dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, M.Epid describes some of the positive impacts of the recently passed Health Law, namely:
- Medicines and Alkes Potentially Cheaper
The pharmaceutical and medical equipment sector is still significantly dependent on imports. Around 90 percent of medicinal raw materials for local pharmaceutical production are still imported and 88 percent of medical device transactions in 2019-2020 in the e-catalog are imported products.
