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Exception demanded for military in national healthcare scheme
Military personnel should be allowed to bypass the national healtcare scheme's referral system for treatment at milirary hospitals, the Defense Ministry has demanded.
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Military personnel should be allowed to bypass the national healtcare scheme's (JKN) referral system for treatment at milirary hospitals, the Defense Ministry has demanded. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)
T
he Defense Ministry has urged the Health Ministry to issue a regulation to exempt Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel from needing a referral to be treated at military hospitals under the national healthcare scheme (JKN).
In a meeting on Monday at House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense, Defense Director General Maj. Gen. Bambang Hartawan requested that the health minister issue a ministerial regulation as the legal basis for military personnel to bypass the tiered referral scheme when they want to get treated at military hospitals.
According to Article 2 of Health Ministry Regulation No. 4/2018 on hospital and patient obligations, every hospital must implement a tiered referral scheme.
As of December, 1.5 million TNI members have been registered with the national healthcare program. Like civil servants, police officers and government officials, military personnel get a small part of their pay deducted from their salary to cover the monthly premiums, but military members only need to pay 2 percent of their salaries, while the remainder is covered by profits generated by the operation of military hospitals.
“We give the Health Ministry one month to issue the regulation. We don’t want to do it without a proper legal basis,” he said, adding that the health minister should immediately form a task force to address the issue by the end of March.
Budi Youyastri, a member of Commission I from the National Mandate Party, said the commission supported the request.
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Hidayat Nur Wahid said he, too, supported the plea, adding that such a regulation would not only pertain to military personnel but also their families.
“Without such protection, it will be difficult for them to perform their duties,” Hidayat said.
Fellow PKS politiciam Sukamta agreed, saying the ministry should encounter no significant problem in the process, as it did not involve any budget.
He also urged state insurer BPJS Kesehatan to prioritize paying off claims made by military hospitals to ensure their cash flow, as the government only allocated Rp 107 trillion (US$7.6 billion) from the state budget to the TNI.
“Military hospitals should be a priority. They don’t get a hefty budget allocation, they can’t possibly be [expected] to cope with mediocre health services too,” Sukamta said.
Kalsum Komaryani, the head of the Health Ministry’s center for health insurance and financing, said the ministry had not included the requested regulation on its priority list so far.
“We’re discussing many regulations, including drafts and revised regulations,” she said.
Kalsum said they would need to get input from various ministries and institutions, including the Indonesian Medical Association and the Hospitals Association.
At the meeting, Commission I also encouraged the Ministry of Defense to insert a new clause about healthcare services in Law No. 34/2004 concerning TNI personnel. (ggq)
