Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Health Insurance in Indonesia

The health system in Indonesia is generally underfunded. For example, the total health expenditure of Indonesia is less than 2% gross domestic product per capital. Although the health financing in Indonesia is a mix system between health insurance, tax funded, and out of pocket, majority of the people are still paying health services out of pocket.


There are two health insurance company run by the government, which are PT Askes and PT Jamsostek.


Askes is a compulsory health insurance scheme for civil servants and the members only need to contribute 2% of their monthly salary to Askes. All members are entitled to comprehensive medical benefits regardless of their income. Meanwhile, Askes pay the health care providers, usually consists of public health centers and public hospital prospectively.


Jamsostek is the social security scheme for private sector employers and employees. The government enacted Law No.3 on social security programs in 1992, and appointed Jamsostek to cover companies employing 10 workers or more, or those paying the monthly salary of Rp1 million or more. It covers employment injury, death, health insurance and a provident fund type Old Age Benefit.


In 2005, Askeskin or “health insurance for the poor” was introduced to increase access of health services for the poor. The card holder just need to pay as low as Rp 5,000 per month to receive health care varies from simple common cold to heart surgery and haemodialysis.


In conclusion, there is still a lot of Indonesian that are not covered by insurance. Besides that, the underfunded health system in Indonesia can cause several problems, for example low health services quality and unequal distribution of health care providers. Thus, steps need to be taken overcome this issue and cooperation between government and insurance company are needed.


References:

1. Health Financing in Indonesia: A Reform Road Map. Jakarta: World Bank

2. Social Health Insurance for the Poor: Targeting and Impact of Indonesia'a Askeskin Program, SMERU Research Institute.

3. Health Fincance, Prof. dr. Ali Ghufron Mukti.

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