Legislator Commission IX DPR Asks Government To Increase Socialization Of Free Health Check Programs

Illustration of the implementation of free health checks (CKG) at the East Jakarta Health Center. BETWEEN/HO-East Jakarta City Government.

JAKARTA - Member of Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Asep Romy Romya asked the government to increase the socialization of the free health check program which began on Monday, February 10. Because Romy admitted that he received many reports that people in the regions, especially outside Java, did not know in detail about the program.

"Finally they have not been able to participate in this program," said Asep Romy, Tuesday, February 11.

Romy said the free health check program was a form of President Prabowo Subianto's commitment to improve the quality of life of the community. According to him, this program is very strategic to increase people's life expectancy and reduce medical costs due to chronic diseases that are late in handling it.

"This free health check program will have an impact on people's habits to prevent chronic diseases from an early age so that in the long term it will ease the burden on BPJS," he said.

The Ministry of Health, continued Romy, has admitted that at least 400 health centers still have problems accessing the internet. This situation is a challenge for itself because the implementation of this program is carried out digitally through the One Healthy application.

"Although the Ministry of Health has prepared alternative manual data collection for areas that have difficulty accessing the internet, in the future there must be improvements because after all the digital approach will make it easier for both the Puskesmas as organizers and the community as patients," he said.

In addition, said Romy, several regions were forced to postpone the implementation of free health checks due to preparation constraints. Lack of socialization also causes very little public interest in utilizing this program, as happened in Bandung and Jakarta.

"We understand this is still the early stages, but this should be an evaluation so that the free health check program is really a point of change in the management of health services in the country," he said.

The PKB legislator from the West Java II electoral district emphasized that this program requires support from various parties so that it can be successful. The involvement of local governments, civil society and the private sector is needed so that preventive promotive efforts in improving public health can run well.

"The free health check program cannot be borne by the government alone, it takes community involvement so that this program runs well," he concluded.