Jokowi's Order To Reduce PCR Prices To Rp. 450-550 Thousand Is Considered Realistic And Does Not Harm Health Facilities

Illustration (Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi)'s move to order Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin to lower the price of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-based COVID-19 test is considered realistic. In addition, the request is considered not to cause harm to health facilities.

To Budi, Jokowi ordered the price of the PCR-based COVID-19 test to be reduced to Rp. 450 thousand, the lowest and the highest limit of Rp. 550 thousand. This needs to be done in order to increase testing capacity in the community.

In response to this, an epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, Dicky Budiman, considered this to be realistic. Moreover, people often do PCR tests not for tracking COVID-19 cases but for traveling or carrying out work requirements.

"I think what the government has said is realistic and what must be understood is that the tests that are mentioned at a price are tests that must be accessed by the public themselves for what reason, because they have their own interests, for example going abroad, to the region, or office assignments and others. So no It's good that if it is charged to the state, it is natural," said Dicky when contacted by VOI, Monday, August 16.

Even so, he reminded that the price should not be charged to people who need to carry out tracking and testing due to close contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Furthermore, Dicky asked that the implementation of the price that had been conveyed by President Jokowi be closely monitored by related parties. In fact, he asked health facilities that apply a higher price for PCR tests to be subject to sanctions in the form of temporary suspension of their operating permits.

"This implementation must be closely monitored by the Health Service. Because if someone violates it, it's great to be in a situation like this," he said.

"Besides, in my opinion, there was relatively a lot of flexibility yesterday. So what the government has said in my opinion will not cause any loss and if anyone violates it, they can be punished," added Dicky.

Previously, President Jokowi responded to the high price of PCR tests in Indonesia by asking for a price reduction. "I have spoken with the Minister of Health about this. I ask that the price of the PCR test is Rp.450-550," he said in a video uploaded by the Cabinet Secretariat, Sunday, August 15.

Not only asking to lower the price of the PCR test, the former Governor of DKI Jakarta also asked for the results of the PCR test to come out within 1x24 hours. "We need speed," he said.

For your information, Indonesia is one of the countries that charges high rates for COVID-19 tests compared to a number of countries in the world. In some countries, even COVID-19 tests are given free of charge.

In Indonesia, the price of PCR is priced at IDR 800 thousand to millions of rupiah depending on the speed with which the data is published. The speed of the results also varies, some are 24 hours but some have to wait a few days.

The government through the Ministry of Health has set the highest limit rate for independent PCR swabs of IDR 900 thousand. The decision was taken after many parties suggested that the government set a standard tariff because the current price was too expensive.