Dont Get Sick When You Are Poor

Reading this story make me sad. A toddler died after being denied of treatment. When my father had cardiac arrest, I was lucky that we could admitted him to the hospital and had emergency heart surgery without paying any down payment first. I heard later on that in the midst of commotion a cousin of mine left her ID card there as guarantee. The fact that we came with two professors of medicine and a couple more doctors didnt hurt either.

After he passed away, we could immediately take his body home. It wasnt until the next day that I went back there to try to settle the bill and get my cousin's ID back.

One thing from the toddler story that I noticed, they took her to a small private hospital. The doctors referred them to another private hospital. If they took her to the public hospital the story might ended up differently. At least they wont cost as much as at private hospitals.

Of course there is ASKES and ASKESKIN, health insurance for civil servants and the poor, which help reducing the burden of payment significantly for those who has them. But, certain health service providers treat those card carrying patients differently. Therefore people prefer to go to private hospital wishing to be treated better, eventho they have to pay more out of pocket.

Indonesia needs to overhaul its universal health care systems, perhaps starting with a better referral systems from family doctor to specialist, from puskesmas to hospitals. The same goes for the mindset of health service providers and patients. People needs to realize that card carrying or not, all patients need to be treated in the best possible way. People also needs to realize that going to a private hospital doesnt always mean getting a better treatment.