Smokers to be excluded from Jakarta’s free healthcare schemes

Health officials in Jakarta are planning to exclude smokers and their families from the city’s free healthcare schemes for low income households.

Fauzi Bowo, the governor of the Indonesian capital city, said that it was unfair for the city administration to continue subsidising those who did not properly look after their health by continuing to smoke.

“A survey showed low income families spent 22% of their income on cigarettes. These people enjoy free health care while still smoking, which worsens their health. This is not fair,” he was reported as saying by the Jakarta Post. …