Team set up to expand coverage for workers

The government has announced it is set to begin a study to develop a credible national health insurance program that would benefit Indonesians of all standings.

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono said Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono had a month to complete the study.

“[The study will cover] issues regarding the implementation of Jamkesmas [health insurance scheme for the poor], who the executors will be, how the system should be, how the government should serve all the people — not just the poor,” Agung said after a Cabinet meeting in Jakarta on Thursday.

He said Jamkesmas was currently the only government-run health insurance program. The program, which was launched in 2005 under the name Askeskin, covers 76 million people out of the country’s 230 million population, at a yearly cost of Rp 5 trillion (US$546.5 million) to the state budget, Agung said.

It is estimated that less than 40 percent of the country’s population is covered by medical insurance, according to official figures.

Addressing a Southeast Asian regional meeting of the International Social Security Association in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday, president director of state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek,
Hotbonar Sinaga, said  Indonesia lacked political will and law enforcement to run mandatory social security programs, with the result that almost 100 million workers were uninsured.

“Based on the 1992 Social Security Law, the government has not contributed to social security programs, while employers and workers contribute only up to 12 percent to cover the four current programs,” he said.

Jamsostek said it refused to share the blame for the small coverage as the law enforcement was
in the hands of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and the National Police, which had so far brought no recalcitrant employers to court.

“Employers can no longer use the economic downturn as an excuse for delaying participation. The small coverage of the social security program has a lot to do with the government’s weak political will and the absence of effective and efficient law enforcement,” Hotbonar said.