TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'How are we going to pay for that?' Families raise objections to increase of BPJS premiums
A health services monitoring agency, BPJS Watch, said that the decision to significantly raise the premiums of BPJS Kesehatan has the potential to increase the number of non-active independent National Health Service participants. Independent participants are those who pay the premiums by themselves, as compared to employees, whose premiums are partly paid by their employers.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Hold tight: A patient and a member of Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) is pushed in a wheelchair by a family member after undergoing a medical check-up at the Bahteramas Hospital in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi. (Antara/Jojon)
F
or many families in Indonesia, money struggles are often kept private. However, in the past few days discussions have emerged in public and on social media surrounding the financial troubles that lie ahead for households trying to pay National Health Insurance (JKN) premiums.
The concerns were raised after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday signed a new presidential regulation (Perpres) on healthcare security. It included a significant rise of premiums for BPJS Kesehatan ─ which manages Indonesia’s national health insurance ─ that are to take effect next year.
For Yulian Juita, 30, who lives with her husband and her 11-month-old son in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, the higher premiums are a serious problem as she relies a lot on the JKN. The insurance has helped her many times, especially when she gave birth to her first child, Hernan, in December last year.
Last month when Hernan suffered from a high fever for days, Yulian brought him to the nearest community health center and with the help of her JKN card Hernan was treated for free.
Yulian and her husband have been paying for the first-class JKN service that costs them Rp 240,000 per month for the three of them. With the new regulation, the premiums would increase 100 percent and that means Yulian’s family would have to pay Rp 480,000 a month.
“We have to pay about a half-million starting next year. How are we going to pay for that?” Yulian asked The Jakarta Post on Sunday. "My husband and I have talked and we have decided to downgrade [their health coverage] to second class. It’s still more expensive than what we used to pay, but it’s more affordable."
The regulation has more than doubled the premiums for the second-class service from Rp 51,000 to Rp 110,000 and the premiums for third-class service are to be hiked from Rp 25,500 per person per month to Rp 42,000.
