Hundreds of millions of citizens depend on the public health insurance.
he government has no choice but to annul the recent increase of National Health Insurance (JKN) premiums after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of hundreds of millions of citizens who depend on the public health insurance.
The court granted victory to a group of petitioners that had challenged Presidential Regulation No. 75/2019, which mandated higher premiums for all service levels beginning this year. The regulation had sparked debate and compelled thousands of people to downgrade their service class or even opt out of the public health insurance altogether.
Pudjiatie from Malang in East Java said she welcomed the court’s decision because the premium increase had been a burden for her. The 50-year old said she had paid into the insurance for the past five years but had never used it herself.
As she pays for her own coverage and that of her nephew, both of whom are members of the second-class service, the extra cost was a double burden for her.
“It is good that the price has been reduced again,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed the regulation on Oct. 30 of last year, raising the per-person premium for the first-class service from Rp 80,000 to Rp 160,000 and for the second-class service from Rp 51,000 to Rp 110,000, while increasing the premium for the third-class service by 64 percent from Rp 25,000 to Rp 42,000.
The premium increase was intended to solve the financial deficit that has always plagued the insurance operator, the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan), but it prompted many to downgrade their service level and risked overloading the cheapest third-class service.
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