PCR Test Considered Expensive, DPR Asked The Government To Regulate The Price

JAKARTA - Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian Parliament, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, asked the government, in this case the Committee for Handling Covid-19 and National Economic Recovery, to step in following up on the findings of the high price of polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests in a number of hospitals.

"The test is very urgent for the community and if the price is still too expensive, according to the Chairman of the BNPB, the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery should immediately respond to this," Dasco told reporters at the DPR RI Building, Senayan, Jakarta, quoted from the DPR website, Friday, September 4.

The Gerindra Party politician suggested that there should be a set price benchmark. The price set, he said, should not burden the community.

"So that the high cost of PCR or the difference in PCR prices can be equalized, or at least there is a price benchmark, because the regions used may be different so that the people who will do the PCR test are also not burdened excessively," he said.

Previously, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force revealed that there were hospitals that set the price of a PCR test or swab test of up to Rp 2.5 million. Even though the price for a single specimen examination is not more than Rp. 500 thousand.

"Likewise, there are hospitals that set the PCR swab test price to above Rp 2.5 million. Even though the routine price or the price we can see will actually not be more than Rp 500 thousand per unit or per specimen examination," he said. Chairman of the Covid-19 Task Force Doni Monardo at a meeting at the House of Representatives Commission VIII, Thursday, September 3.