For “Mika” a 25-year-old marketing officer, allocating part of their monthly income for insurance premiums is a problem as the monthly cost of food alone amounts to Rp 6.5 million (US$455), Mika told The Jakarta Post.

 “This is [the same for] everyone, basically,” Philip Mulyana, an independent financial adviser, said during the Post’s Jakpost Up Close webinar series titled “How to navigate insurance during a pandemic” on Monday.

 “With the current COVID-19 situation, we can all agree that everything can change in the blink of an eye. If you want to do something for your family or your loved ones, insurance is one of the options,” he added.

 With more than 3 million people laid off during the pandemic as of June 2, according to the government’s data, as well as more than 55,000 recorded COVID-19 cases as of Monday, the pandemic has brought uncertainty to people’s lives, while insurance penetration in the country remains stagnant at 3 percent.

 Since the pandemic, a quarter of Indonesian people have felt anxious about their health, while 35 percent want to have health insurance, according to 2020 study by data analytics firms Nielsen, Kantar and consulting firm MarkPlus.

 Philip suggested people spend at most 10 percent of their monthly income for insurance, but he acknowledged that the general lack of willingness to spend on insurance was driven by people’s tendency to sacrifice long-term protection for short-term rewards.

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