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n a bid to increase company compliance with the National Health Insurance (JKN) program, from July 1, the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) will start giving strict sanctions to companies that fail to enroll their employees.

The JKN provider said on Wednesday that while the government had required all employers to enroll their employees in the program since Jan. 1, as stipulated by Presidential Decree No. 111/2013, it has been lenient in implementing the policy.

For example, members of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) were exempt from the policy until the end of June due to a memorandum of understanding between the group and the BPJS Kesehatan.

Starting from July 1, all employers have to enroll their employees with no exceptions.

'€œI would not call it a stricter policy. We are just implementing existing regulations, but we prefer to be persuasive,'€ BPJS Kesehatan spokesman Irfan Humaidi told The Jakarta Post. '€œWe don'€™t want them to comply because of the punishment.'€

He acknowledged that there were still some companies that had not enrolled their workers despite being mandated to do so.

'€œWe have actually given sanctions to companies in some regions, especially those that are not members of Apindo,'€ said Irfan. '€œThere have been around 100 so far.'€

According to him, the sanctions, which come in the form of warnings, have so far been effective in encouraging companies to enroll their workers.

'€œThe punishments come in various forms, with the lightest being a written warning. A written warning is usually enough to make companies comply,'€ said Irfan.

Bambang Purwoko of the National Social Security Board (SJSN), tasked with monitoring the JKN program, said that there were still some companies, usually small-scale, that refuse to enroll in the JKN program due to a perceived lack of facilities.

'€œThey'€™re not used to a system where they have to go to primary medical facilities first [as required in the JKN program],'€ he told the Post. '€œThey usually already have their own doctors.'€

Starting from July 1, the premium contribution by wage-earning workers was also increased to 5 percent of their salaries, in which 4 percent is paid by their employers and the remaining 1 percent by the workers themselves.

The payments used to be 4.5 percent, with 4 percent paid by companies and 0.5 percent by employees.

'€œIt was supposed to be 5 percent [from the beginning], but because of the policy'€™s transition period, we decided on a 0.5 percent figure. It was proposed by workers because in some companies, their employees did not want to pay and thus all of the premium was paid by their employers. Therefore, we had to compromise,'€ Irfan said.