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Govt vows to cover blue-collar workers who can’t pay higher health insurance premiums
People no longer eligible for subsidy will be replaced with those currently unable to pay.
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The government faces strong opposition to increasing the premium to cover the deficit. (JP/Dionnasius Aditya)
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dinda, a 26-year-old waitress at a restaurant in South Jakarta, is in a dilemma. As her monthly expenses have increased this month along with the newly hiked national health insurance (JKN) premium, she now has to decide whether she will continue or opt out of the state insurance scheme.
She is currently covered under the JKN third-class service, for which the monthly premium has increased from Rp 25,500 (around US$2) to Rp 42,000 per person since Jan. 1. She said it would not be expensive if she only had to pay for herself, but it has become a financial burden since she also pays for her parents and three younger siblings.
“Therefore, now I have to pay at least Rp 252,000 a month just for the premium, from Rp 150,000 before. I’m the breadwinner of the family, my parents do not work any more so I have to bear all the financial burden by myself,” Adinda told The Jakarta Post at a Transjakarta bus shelter in Semanggi, South Jakarta, on Monday, adding that her monthly salary was slightly above Jakarta’s required minimum wage of Rp 3.9 million.
Toto, a 33-year-old janitor at a private office building in South Jakarta is in a similar situation. He lamented the increasing state insurance premium, saying it had come at a bad time since he had to spend extra money this month to repair his television and motorcycle, which were damaged in the massive floods that hit the city last week.
“The increasing JKN premium is a burden for me, but I think the state insurance is important as it can pay all of my medical expenditure if I have to be hospitalized in the future,” Toto said.
JKN holders have to pay more for the insurance since the government decided to increase the premiums for all JKN service classes on Jan. 1 after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed Presidential Regulation No. 75/2019 on healthcare security.
In the new regulation, the government has decided to double the premium for the first-class service to Rp 160,000 per month per person from the previous Rp 80,000, while more than doubling the cost for the second-class service from Rp 51,000 to Rp 110,000.
