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View all search resultsPatients lose access to lifesaving care due to JKN subsidy cuts
Criticism is growing over BPJS Kesehatan's ongoing data update in the new DTSEN system after a number of people have lost access to lifesaving treatments without notice, only to learn later that their healthcare subsidies were cut or their policies canceled altogether.
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An illustration of the Indonesia Health Card, with medication and rupiah banknotes in the foreground (Courtesy of BPJS Kesehatan)
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atients with chronic illnesses say they have lost access to lifesaving treatment after the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) eliminated subsidies for around 11 million national health insurance (JKN) members.
Nani, 34, a resident of Bandung, West Java, said she was shocked when she learned during a hospital visit earlier this week that her subsidized JKN membership had been deactivated.
“The hospital said that my health insurance coverage had been canceled starting on Feb.1, just days before my scheduled blood transfusion. It felt like my world collapsed,” she said on Wednesday, as quoted by Kompas.com.
Nani has thalassemia major, a hereditary blood disorder that leads to abnormal red blood cells or an inadequate amount of hemoglobin, and requires lifelong treatment through blood transfusions every few weeks.
For the past five years, she has relied on JKN to cover her medication and treatment costs, which she says she cannot afford without the government’s health subsidy program.
Nani sought clarification from the local social affairs office, where officials told her that her JKN subsidy had been revoked after she was reclassified as a middle-income earner, though Nani said she had a limited income.
“I have filed an appeal against the deactivation of my subsidized JKN [policy] and am waiting for the government’s verification process,” she said.
