T

he House of Representatives are mulling over a plan to form a special committee that would challenge the government’s regulation for the National Security System (SJSN) expected to come into effect in 2014.

Lawmakers said that Government Regulation No. 11/2012 on the monthly premium for health insurance under the program had too many loopholes.

A lawmaker from Commission IX overseeing wealth and welfare Karolin Margret Natasa, who is also an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, said the regulation failed to clearly state the criteria for low-income individuals eligible for the monthly premium provided by the social security providers (BPJS).

The new regulation only stipulates that people who are eligible, to have their monthly premium paid by the BPJS, are those whose income is not enough to pay the premium for the program.

Karolin said that the regulation should clearly stipulate if people eligible for the program are those whose income is below the current minimum wage.

“We are planning to form a special committee to revise this regulation, as some articles lack details,” Karolin said.

The government had earlier proposed that it would pay the monthly premium of Rp 22,200 [US$2.33] per individual for low-income eligible for the program. The government said that it would allocate a total of Rp 25.6 trillion to pay for the premiums for 96.4 million beneficiaries considered to be in the poor or near-poor category.

However, the Finance Ministry may reduce the monthly premium to Rp 15,500 for low-income people eligible for the program, and would only cover the insurance for 86.4 million beneficiaries.

“We are wondering why the government is now considering the plan,” Karolin said.

Meanwhile, Isa Rachmatarwata, head of the insurance division of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK), who represented the government in a meeting with the House on Monday said that the government had yet to decide on the amount of premium and the number of people eligible for the program.

Isa said that the premium would range from Rp 15,500 to Rp 22,200.

“Rp 22,200 is an ideal amount, but there are few things that we have to consider, including the condition of the state’s coffers,” Isa said.

Sri Endang Tidarwati, the director of state insurance company PT Askes, the sole operator of BPJS, said the government should allocate more than Rp 22,200 for the monthly premium, saying that the current monthly premium for civil servants now stands at Rp 40,000.

“We estimate that the monthly premium should be around Rp 27,000 to bring about the ideal amount of benefit,” Endang said. “It would be beneficial both for participants of the program and help ease the burden for the institution that manage the insurance.”

State-owned health insurance company PT Askes, who have been given the mandate to run as BPJS, is expected to begin operating in 2014 with the hope that by 2019, all Indonesians will be covered by health insurance. (nad)