ACCURATE.CO, Association Executive Director PRAKARSA, AH Maftuchan, revealed that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is still difficult to achieve in Indonesia.
“Service coverage index UHC in 2018 (in Indonesia) it was only 60 and that was not optimal," he said at the Ashley Hotel, Central Jakarta, Monday (20/1/2020).
According to him, it happened because so far the achievements UHC only measured by the number of Guarantee participation Health National (JKN).
Though, Maftuchan said, the concept UHC broader than that, which is measured in terms of quality, service coverage and financial protection for the community in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework.
"UHC should be seen as the state's commitment to improve the quality of health for all people fairly and equitably within the jurisdiction of Indonesia. The community must get access to health services without experiencing financial difficulties, but unfortunately this is still a challenge in itself,” he said.
According to Maftuchan, the out-of-pocket costs for health care in Indonesia are still relatively high, which hampers efforts to provide financial protection for the community.
The community, continued Maftuchan, finally diverted consumption to basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing to obtain health services.
“There are 13 million people who spend more than 10 percent of total consumption on health care. In addition, nearly 1,1 million people are above the 2018 national poverty line and are impoverished due to out-of-pocket costs," he said.
In addition, continued Maftuchan, there is also a tendency where provinces with a low health service coverage index have low health catastrophic expenditures.
"For example, Papua and NTT, which are two provinces with high poverty rates, have a low service coverage index with low catastrophic expenditures," he said.
Inequality of service coverage UHC between provinces in Indonesia, according to Maftuchan, is also still very high. Provinces in Java Island and the western part of Indonesia tend to have higher index scores when compared to other regions.
Maftuchan said that the significant difference could be seen from the results of the calculations carried out by PRAKARSA, where Jakarta ranks highest with index 70 and West Sulawesi ranks lowest with index 52.
"The problem of distribution of health workers and limited infrastructure in poor areas is still the province's broadcast with a low service coverage index," he said.
Maftuchan said that inequality between provinces needs to be a concern and must be addressed immediately by building health infrastructure and facilities.
"This includes a more even distribution of health workers, especially in provinces that have a low service coverage index," he said.
Sumber: Accurate.co
