The Ministry of Health Uses IHME Data as a Reference for the Impact of Air Pollution, BPJS Expenses Can Be More Than IDR 10 Trillion

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health uses data The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) as a reference for analyzing the burden of disease caused by the effects of air pollution in Indonesia.

"In the closed discussion meeting with the President, we were asked for some input, because (air pollution) is similar to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin in the agenda of the Joint Working Meeting with Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR) reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, August 30.

According to Budi, the government's response to the pollution that is now hitting Jabodetabek and its surroundings must be supplemented with surveillance and analysis data so that the public has confidence in the integrity of the data from the government.

Budi said, IHME was founded by the former Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Prof. Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray.

"Yesterday I came to his office in Seattle, USA, this former founder was one of the Assistant Director General at WHO, he made this data very good, but because it was too good and too honest, it made many countries uncomfortable, so he resigned. from WHO," he said.

Christopher then continued his work at the University of Washington through funding from the Bill and Melinda Foundation.

Budi said his research data had succeeded in becoming a world data reference for the Burden of Disease, which allowed each country to measure the burden of disease that occurred.

In the latest IHME report, said Budi, data in Indonesia shows that there are five diseases that have the potential to be caused by respiratory diseases, namely tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, pneumonia, and asthma.

"It seems that this is indeed the top 15 of the diseases in Indonesia," he said.

Budi also reported the top six respiratory diseases that were a financial burden on BPJS Kesehatan, namely pneumonia, tuberculosis, ARI, followed by asthma, COPD, and lung cancer.

Through this data, the Ministry of Health has separated a list of diseases that have the potential to be caused by air pollution, namely pneumonia, ARI, asthma, and COPD which are similar to pneumonia, but are chronic in nature.

"Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria, not by air pollution. Lung cancer is caused by genetics, not by air pollution," he said.

From the results of data analysis, said Budi, the most influence of air pollution on public health is pneumonia as a lung infection and ARI as an upper respiratory tract infection that has not yet reached the lungs.

"The total Health Social Security Organizing Agency (BPJS) expenditure for this disease was IDR 10 trillion last year, so it is certain that if it goes up, then in 2023 it will definitely increase again, from IDR 10 trillion," he said.