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GE Healthcare is introducing a new financing program that makes it easier for medical providers in Indonesia to purchase diagnostic and treatment equipment, boosting access to health care.

The program, announced on Monday, is part of GE’s Healthymagination program, which aims to launch more than 100 innovations by 2015 that lower cost, increase access and improve health care quality by at least 15 percent.

GE Healthcare’s Southeast Asian president, David Utama, told the Jakarta Globe the program was created specifically to address Indonesia’s health care challenges.

“The capital expenditure private clinics need to do at the get-go is significant, and the cost of capital is high,” Utama said. “A financing system is needed to help us help the health care system in Indonesia.”

The financing scheme, called the Healthy Indonesia credit card, is the product of a partnership with state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia. Medical professionals who qualify for a loan through BNI will be able to obtain credit for the purchase of new medical equipment at a lower rate than a small private health care provider would be offered on its own, and in a more streamlined process, Utama said.

Currently, five products are available for purchase through the program: a portable ultrasound, two types of electrocardiograms, an incubator and an infant phototherapy device.

Moez Attia, Southeast Asian marketing director at GE Healthcare, said the company decided to debut the financing program in Indonesia because even though there were many countries facing similar health care challenges — poor access in rural areas and poor quality in all but the top urban hospitals — in Indonesia it was far more expensive to get the capital needed for equipment.

“Because the interest rate on loans is so high, many people don’t even think of taking one out,” Attia said. “The machines will generate business for private clinics, and if someone were to help them fund the purchase up front it would end up paying for itself. We’re hoping this accelerates the adoption of these technologies and improves patients’ access to them.”

It also helps GE, which could attract many new clients formerly unable to afford its devices.

Attia said GE was not worried about placing a debt burden on doctors who signed up for a loan but were unable to attract enough paying patients to pay it back.

“Private doctors are entrepreneurs. If they purchase it, it means they know people will pay for it,” Attia said.

He acknowledged the Healthy Indonesia credit card would not reach all Indonesians, many of them unable to afford health insurance or private hospital care.

“For people at the lowest end of the income spectrum or in the most rural areas, the biggest impact has to come from the government. In places that are very remote, where it’s more expensive to get equipment and you either can’t charge the same prices for exams or have fewer patients, no private company would go there,” Attia said. “The private sector can contribute if it makes sense economically, but that’s the role of the government.”

Attia said the government was “moving in the right direction” on recognizing the importance of improving access to good medical care, particularly in rural areas, despite recent calls for more state-of-the-art hospitals to stem the tide of Indonesians seeking medical care overseas.

He cited the example of India, which was able to become a medical tourism destination while being plagued by poor health care for those at lower income levels.

“If a private entrepreneur wants to set up a private business to attract medical tourists, why not? As to whether it helps the average Indonesian, if it helps the economy, indirectly it will help everyone,” he said.

Even if GE’s program does not benefit all Indonesians, if the card meets Healthymagination’s 15 percent access improvement standard, Utama noted, that would mean an additional 100 million people gained access to better health care each year.

So far the company has introduced the idea to only a few private clinics, but the response has been positive.

“We’re confident it will be successful, but how successful, we’re waiting to see,” Attia said. “It works with TVs, it works with cars, why not health care?”