President Jokowi: The Health Bill Is Expected To Overcome Doctor Shortages

President Jokowi delivered a statement after inaugurating the Cisumdawu Toll Road, Sumedang, West Java on Tuesday (11/7/2023). ANTARA/Gilang Galiartha.

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo hopes that the Draft Health Law (RUU) which will be ratified at the plenary meeting today can overcome the shortage of doctors in Indonesia.

"We hope that the shortage of doctors can be accelerated, the shortage of specialists can be accelerated, I think the direction is there," said President Jokowi in Sumedang after inaugurating the Cisumdawu Toll Road, West Java, as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 11.

The DPR has scheduled the ratification of the Health Bill through a plenary meeting forum on Tuesday (11/7).

"It's good, we hope that the Health Law will be evaluated and corrected in the DPR. I think it will improve information in our health services sector," continued the President.

The previous Health Bill triggered pros and cons from various parties. The plenary meeting for the ratification of the Health Bill was also scheduled for June 20, 2023 but was postponed because it had not been through the Leadership Meeting (Rapim) and the Deliberative Body (Bamus).

A number of parties who are against the Health Bill include the Lintas Profession Teacher Forum (FGBLP) who submitted a petition to President Jokowi and DPR Speaker Puan Maharani on Monday (10/7/2023). They asked that the Health Bill be postponed.

Some of the problems identified by FGBLP include the preparation of the Health Bill which does not adequately meet the crucial principles of making laws, namely openness/transparentness, participation, clarity of the basis for formation (filosophys, sociological, and juridical) as well as clarity of the formulation.

According to FGBLP, currently there is no urgent urgency and interest in ratifying the Health Bill which will revoke nine health-related laws and amend four other laws. Various rules in the Health Bill actually risk impairing the health system's destability.

An example is the elimination of "mandatory spending" that is not in accordance with the mandate of the Abuja Declaration WHO (World Health Organization) and TAP MPR RI X/MPR/2021, which is to recommend a minimum of 20 percent of the APBN.

In addition, the emergence of articles related to multi-space for professional organizations. Next there is convenience for foreign doctors to enter Indonesia and the implementation of medical biotechnology projects, includinggenome projects that are considered to threaten the nation's bi-securities and thermologous controversy during abortion.

In fact, the abortion problem has been regulated in the new Criminal Code Law, and the Health Bill only follows what is already in the Criminal Code Law so that it does not conflict. Another issue that is misguided is related to genomic policies.

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