Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin representing the Government to testify at a formal judicial review hearing of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health, Thursday (12/7/2023). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Public health issues will decrease productivity and cause losses to the state, therefore a health transformation is needed to promote public health. In this regard, improved and open development can lead to self-reliance and drive the national health industry and the enhancement of safe, quality, and affordable healthcare services to improve quality of life. This can be achieved through the design of legal frameworks in the Health Law.

The statement was made by the Government/President, delivered by Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin at a formal judicial review hearing of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health (Health Law) on Thursday, December 7, 2023. The case No. 130/PUU-XXI/2023 was filed by five medical and health professional organizations that are members of the Joint Secretariat of Health Profession Organizations.

“Therefore, it is necessary to adjust policies to strengthen the health system holistically in one comprehensive law. The Government believes the establishment of the Health Law was in accordance with the 1945 Constitution and the Lawmaking Law,” Budi said before Chief Justice Suhartoyo and the other eight constitutional justices.

Joint Discussion

At this third hearing, Budi explained the process of drafting and finalizing the law by the legislative body, which began in December 2022. Harmonization and decision-making were conducted on February 7, 2023 for submission to the House of Representatives (DPR). On February 14, 2023 the House held a plenary session on the Health Bill and the results were submitted to the President on March 7.

Budi explained that at the drafting stage, the President appointed several ministers to discuss the Health Bill together with the House on March 9, 2023. A letter from the Minister of State Secretariat states that the Minister of Health was appointed as the coordinator in the problem inventory list (DIM). The President assigned six ministers, specifically Minister of Health, Minister of Education, Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Law and Human Rights to represent the President in discussing the Health Bill together with the House.

In short, the drafting of DIM was conducted both online and offline from March 9 to April 2, 2023 by involving experts, the pharmaceutical industry, and other relevant parties in accordance with Article 96 of the Lawmaking Law in the form of public consultations, FGDs, and dissemination. The public could participate on discussing the Bill through the Health Ministry’s YouTube channel while the Government allowed public participation on the ministries’ official portals.

“Hence, the establishment of this Health Law fulfilled the provisions and DPD’s [(Regional Representatives Council)] involvement was only for discussions related to regional autonomy, central-regional relations, expansion and merging of regions, management of natural resources and other economic and financial balance between the center and the regions. Meanwhile, the Health Law is not under DPD’s authority, but the implementation of Article 20 of the 1945 Constitution because it contains the management of medical and healthcare personnel as a whole, starting from planning, procurement, and utilization, to meet the needs of medical and healthcare personnel. This procurement is carried out in accordance with the planning and utilization of medical personnel and health personnel conducted through higher education and in accordance with the laws and regulations,” Budi said.

Also read:

Professional Organizations Claim New Health Law Formally Defective

Five Medical Professional Organizations Revise Formal Judicial Review Petition on Health Law

The Joint Secretariat of Health Profession Organizations, which consists of five medical and health professional organizations, filed a formal judicial review petition of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health (Health Law) to the Constitutional Court (MK). The five organizations are the executive boards of the Indonesia Doctors Association (PB IDI), the Indonesian Dental Association (PDGI), the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNI), the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI), and the Indonesian Pharmacists Association (IAI) as Petitioner I-V, respectively.

At the preliminary hearing on Thursday, October 12, legal counsel Muhammad Joni conveyed that the Petitioners are medical personnel who have been directly affected and have an interest in the formation of the Health Law. The new Law has also changed and replaced norms regarding the institution of councils, collegiums, and disciplinary ethics councils without formal procedure that ensure meaningful participation.

Moreover, continued Joni, Article 451 in Chapter XIX on Transitional Provisions abolished all collegiums that are the “hearts” of professional organizations and are not government organs nor owned by the Government. The Law has arbitrarily abolished all legal entities of collegiums by enacting Article 451 of the Health Law, which reads, “When this Law comes into force, the Collegium established by each professional organization shall continue to be recognized until the establishment of Collegiums as referred to in Article 272 established under this Law.” This, the Petitioners argued, is in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of association.  

Formally Defective

The Petitioners believe the Health Law is formally defective as the DPD (Regional Representatives Council) did not participate in discussing the Health Bill. The absence of the DPD’s considerations is against the lawmaking procedure as prescribed in Article 22D paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.

Therefore, in their petitum, the Petitioners ask the Court to declare the Health Law unconstitutional and not legally binding. 

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : Najwa Afifah Lukman/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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