TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi stated that citizens in Indonesia do not need to pay a medical bill when they visit a hospital. He said this was because 95 percent of the total population or 267 million people have the national health insurance program or BPJS Kesehatan, and the state covered the fee for 96 million people through the State Budget.

“There is no country in the world as big as Indonesia where people can go to a hospital for free,” the President said during a meeting with the insurance beneficiaries in Blora, Central Java, on Tuesday, January 23.

The President has been in Central Java since Monday, January 22. He visited regional health facilities, including the Toroh Community Health Center (Puskesmas) in Grobogan today and the Salatiga Regional General Hospital on Monday.

During the visits, he called for improvements in health services and facilities, including shortening queuing time for patients and upgrading health equipment such as ultrasound (USG) machines at the community health centers.

In Blora, Jokowi highlighted the problem of space availability in hospitals. However, he emphasized that the most important thing is for people to stay healthy and hoped that BPJS Kesehatan and the Healthy Indonesia Card would be useful for citizens.

DANIEL A. FAJRI

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