Medicine prices remain within reasonable limits: Health Ministry

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ministry of Health has assured the public that any increase in medicine prices due to rupiah volatility and higher oil prices will remain within reasonable limits.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin underscored that the prices of medicines for the National Health Insurance (JKN) program of state insurer BPJS Kesehatan are guaranteed to remain stable and will not increase.

"We have reviewed which medicine price increases make sense and which do not. Nevertheless, for BPJS medicines, we have managed to keep prices steady," he said in a statement received in Jakarta on Saturday.

He explained that a stronger US dollar does not automatically trigger an equivalent percentage increase in medicine prices. This is because the majority of domestic pharmaceutical production costs are still transacted in rupiah.

Therefore, the government has calculated the reasonable limits for price hikes. Price increases of between 10 and 20 percent are considered acceptable, while anything above that is viewed as profiteering.

Echoing this, the ministry's Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, Lucia Rizka Andalusia, stated that her office has coordinated with the pharmaceutical industry regarding the pricing calculations.

"The ceiling is 20 percent. It depends on the type of medicine—some medicines may rise by only 5 to 10 percent, but nothing is allowed to go over 20 percent," she explained.

Earlier, President Prabowo Subianto affirmed that the Indonesian government continues to make efforts to drive down domestic medicine prices, making them more accessible to the public.

He highlighted a target of making affordable generic medicines available to all segments of society within one year.

The low-cost medicine initiative complements the government's broader efforts to modernize the national healthcare system.

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Translator: Mecca Yumna, Raka Adji

Editor: M Razi Rahman

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