Wasekjen PKB Insinuates Cheap PCR Test Prices For Minister's Pockets

ILLUSTRATION/PCR swab TEST/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Deputy Secretary General (Wasekjen) of DPP PKB, Luqman Hakim, disagrees with Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin's statement that the rate for PCR or polymerase chain reaction tests in Indonesia is the cheapest.

Luqman said the PCR test fee of Rp. 300,000 was in the cheap category if it was for the minister's pocket.

"It must be cheap if the standard is used by a minister's ability. That kind of money, sir, is small for a minister's pocket," Luqman told reporters, Wednesday, October 27.

In the midst of a pandemic like the current one, the Deputy Chairman of Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives emphasized that Rp. 300 thousand was certainly quite large.

He considered, the additional costs are very burdensome for the majority of Indonesian people who want to travel. Moreover, the PCR test is a mandatory requirement to use air transportation and even land transportation is planned.

"For the majority of the people who use public transportation, wow, that's Rp. 300 thousand worth of money," explained the legislator for the Electoral District VI of Central Java.

On the other hand, said Luqman, many experts believe that early detection of COVID-19 can use antigens. This is because the Indonesian people have been vaccinated.

"If there is a cheap one, why does the government choose an expensive one? The government's job is not to make a profit by doing business with its own people," said Luqman.

Despite Lukman's statement, the government, Wednesday, October 27 this afternoon, has set a new price for the PCR test.

The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has officially set the highest tariff change for the cheaper price of the COVID-19 real time PCR (RT-PCR) test. This determination was made on the orders of President Joko Widodo.

The new price for the PCR test was conveyed by the Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, Abdul Kadir, through a virtual press statement.

"From the results of the evaluation, we have agreed that the highest tariff limit for real-time PCR examinations has been lowered to IDR 275,000 for Java and Bali, and IDR 300 thousand for outside Java and Bali," said Kadir on Wednesday, October 27.

Kadir said that the evaluation carried out through the calculation of the cost of taking and checking real time PCR consisted of components, namely services or human resources, reagent and consumable components (DHP), administrative costs, overheating, and other costs that were adjusted to current conditions. .

The results of the real time PCR examination using a maximum amount of Rp. 275 thousand and Rp. 300 thousand are issued with a maximum duration of 1 x 24 hours from swab collection in real time PCR examinations.

"We ask that all health service facilities such as hospitals, laboratories and other service facilities that have been determined by the minister can comply with the highest real-time PCR tariffs," said Kadir.