Presidential Regulations on Health Guarantee is seen as insensitive and indiscriminate to the disabled. Only a few articles in it regulate disability health guarantee. Even the criteria only apply to permanent disabilities. Suharto, Program Manager of Sasana Integrasi and Advokasi Difable Yogyakarta, an NGO for the disabled, said that the disabled is a group vulnerable to diseases that require more health services compared to other people. Therefore, a revision needs to be made soon to the regulation that will be enacted in 2014. In the future, the regulation need to include non-permanent disabilities,” he said on Monday (31/12) during a meeting between the disabled community with Deputy Health Minister in Faculty of Medicine at UGM.
Suharto said that the drafting of the regulations had not involved the disabled group so the regulation is insensitive to the need of the disabled. The regulation is also expected to include health and health equipment early detection, mobility tool and independent tool, also an independent monitoring institution.
The Deputy Minister Prof. Ali Ghufron Mukti said that the government was currently discussing the criteria for recipients of health assistance for the disabled.
“We acknowledge that the criteria up to now have been based on their economy, the poor and the non-poor, excluding the disabled. We will struggle for the recipient criteria of health assistance,” he explained.