POLA PEMBIAYAAN OBAT DI 10 KABUPATEN/KOTA DI INDONESIA (PATTERN OF DRUG FINANCING IN TEN DISTRICTS IN INDONESIA)

Background: Since decentralization era the health budgets including drug budget has been allocated into the development regional budget through formula-based DAU, based on regional revenues and fiscal needs. Health budget is included in DAU, though not explicitly stated. Therefore the health sector practically has to strive for their own budget in every province or every district. This is a new kind of phenomenon for regional governments especially related to the health sector. They should have strategic plan in financing while competing with other sectors to obtain it. Drug consumption in Indonesia is lower than in other ASEAN countries. To ensure access to drugs in primary heath care, the government (Ditjen Bina Farmasi dan Alkes) in the mid-year of 2003 in collaboration with WHO has facilitated a meeting among districts. This meeting leads to an agreement that the regional government should allocate Rp5.000,00 per capita annually for drug budget. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was done in ten districts in Indonesia in the year of 2006 on how far the realization of the district agreement of drug budget allocation, particularly in relation with improving drug access issues. District Health Office and Drug Management Unit were taken as samples and data were collected by structured interviews. Results: 1) Drug budget for most districts/cities is still less than Rp5.000,00 per capita per annum so that it can be assumed a shortage in terms of kind of, as well as, quantity of drugs. 2) Some districts showed an increase in drug budget, while the other ones showed just the opposite. 3) Not all districts had all essential and/or generic drug procurement. Conclusion: We suggest more intensive socializations for drug financing to districts in order to improve the commitment to the agreement on the allocation of drug budget and, secondly, a better technical training with topics: planning, advocacy and negotiation with relevant stakeholders. Key words: drug financing, drug budget, districts/citie