Blood ain't come cheap anymore

Tomorrow is the official day of the increase in the price of blood in Jakarta municipality. The price of blood sold by the Indonesian Red Cross follows the theory of price discrimination, where the rich and affluent pays more and the poor pay less: cross subsidy. The retail price in the government hospitals will rise from Rp 41,000 (SG$ 7.00) to Rp 75,000 (SG$ 12.50), whereas the retail price in private hospitals will rise from Rp 123,000 (SG$ 20) to Rp 200,000 (SG$ 33.00). The good news is, the families fall into the category of "Poor Family" will not have to pay anything. The underlying reason behind the rise in the retail price is the sharp rise in the processing cost to test and sterilize the blood from donors.

But to come to think of it, I think the government, Red Cross and parliamentarians missed out a significant group of people. Those who are out of the "Poor Family"category and not rich either. Many of the Indonesian workforce fall into this category. The workers group, earning approxmately Rp 800,000 (the minimum regional wage in Jakarta) will end us suffer the most. With their just nice income, which barely cover all of the monthly expenses, they will have to pay Rp 41,000 for each bag of blood should any of them suffered from serious bleeding. Let us assume that the worker suffer from medium level of bleeding, and need about 4 bags of blood per day, they will need to fork out Rp 164,000 per day. This means that they can only afford 5 days' supply. After that? Perhaps borrow money, or ask their families to donate blood to exchange for the desired blood type. Sad case isn't it.

What about the rich then? The government also assumed that since the rich can afford to go to the expensive private hospitals, they should be able to afford the Rp 200,000 price of each bag of blood. This is the ideal case, but in reality, the Red Cross can stop the sale of blood to anyone who has purchased too much blood. The friend of my cousin suffered severe bleeding during her delivery process in the last Chinese New Year. Her families purchased blood from the hospital ath the recomended retail price. Until a cretain period of time, the hospital staff pronounce that she had used too much of the quota, and that she cannot purchase any more. The only way to obtain is asking her relatives and friends to donate blood to exchange for the right to purchase the processed bag of blood. Few bags of dontations entitled her to a lesser amount of blood. Alas, she had to go. She recieve much less blood than what her body requires.

Taking the issue of blood aside, let u see the price of the general healthcare in Indonesia. The economic mismanagement has caused a high level of inflation, causing the prices of the necessities and othe cost of productions to increase. The government, burdened by the huge fiscal burden, has removed many of the subsidies that ae meant for the poor people. In the Yogjakarta, the price of policlinic consultation, excluding the medicine, rise from Rp 500 (SG$ 0.10) to Rp 5,000 (SG$ 1.00). Perhaps you may say, it is still so cheap! Before the eyes of the unfortunate, the rise represented a more than 830% increase in the total price. Burdened with the rise in fuel prices and stagnant wage level, their life change from miserable to unbearable.

This is the cities level of health issues. What about the villages? The government mentioned that ideally, they need one medic per village and it is more than enough. The harsh reality is that 60% of the villages outside Java island has no such personnels. This will mean that if the villagers of any village infected with serious illness, they either have to consult the Dukun, walk to the nearest big village or wait to die. Isn't it so sad to realise how many unecessary death can be prevented if the ruling elite has the political will to improve the healthcare system?

Actually, I really hope that if only the rise in the price of blood is a mere April's Fool joke. But I got to wake up and see the reality right? I just hope that many of us, especially Indonesian Chinese, will be willing to contribute more to the society's well being. Anyway, we have been given much more than what we need. We can eat more than what we could possible eat. Giving a little wont cost a fortune isn't it. Let us try to make this world a better place not only for our family friends and religious groups, but also our poor fellows in the society!