Still Plans! Starting 2022, The Government Will Only Pay For Children, PBI And PBU Vaccinations, The Rest Will Be Paid Independently

JAKARTA - Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin conveyed the new news regarding the COVID-19 vaccination plan. The plan is that the government will only pay for vaccinations for the people who receive contribution assistance (PBI).

However, Budi is not sure when this discourse will be implemented. However, he said, the plan was not yet final.

"The plan is that next year the state will only pay the PBI," said Budi in a Working Meeting with Commission IX of the DPR RI, reported by era.id, Monday, September 13.

Budi explained that from the plan being prepared by the government, the COVID-19 vaccination program for the PBI community funded by the state includes injections of the first, second, and also third or booster doses. This means that the booster vaccine for PBI will be covered by the state budget (APBN).

"PBI will receive a booster once. The dosage requirement is for a number of people to receive a booster, plus a buffer of 10 percent," said Budi.

In addition, Budi said, the state will also finance COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 12 years. It is targeted that 4.4 million children will be vaccinated twice.

In addition to PBI, residents who are classified as Class III Non-Wage Recipient Workers (PBPU) will also receive free vaccinations, including booster vaccines. However, they will be borne by the local government (Pemda).

"Later we will allocate funds for the regional government to carry out the third dose of vaccination, but later it will be a burden on the regional government, we will arrange it later," said Budi.

Meanwhile, people outside the PBI and PBPU categories, said Budi, can buy vaccines independently, including booster vaccines. The government will only determine the type of vaccine brand that can be accessed by the public. at the pharmacy," said Budi.

"So we will open the market so that people can choose what vaccine booster (brand) they want to buy," he added.

Furthermore, Budi emphasized that the vaccination scheme was still in the form of a plan being prepared by the government. Because, there are still a number of things that need to be considered before the final decision.

"This is still a plan, we still need to finalize it again with friends in the government, one or two rounds, but to update friends in the DPR," said Budi.

Currently, the third or booster injection of COVID-19 vaccination is only given to health workers. From the Ministry of Health's records as of September 13, 2021, as many as 53.40 percent or 784,374 health workers who have received booster vaccines from a total of 1,468,764 health workers.