Indonesia Launches New Health Insurance Scheme
Bogor. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday launched the government's new health insurance scheme, the first step toward its target of covering all Indonesians by 2019.
The scheme, managed by a new body called the Social Security Organizing Body (BPJS), will in its first phase see 121 million citizens covered.
They include the poor and underprivileged communities previously included in the national Jamkesmas program, a health program launched for impoverished Indonesians, and the regional-run Jamkesda program.
Also included are civil servants insured under Askes, those covered by state-run insurance firm Jamsostek and 1.2 million members of the Indonesian police and military.
In the second phase, Indonesia's entire 240 million population is expected to be covered by the BPJS Health program by Jan. 1, 2019.
"We're introducing BPJS Health to speed up the availability of a national social security system for the entire population of Indonesia," Yudhoyono said during the launching ceremony of the program at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java.
"With such a huge coverage, this program will be unbeatable by any insurance agency."
The BPJS insurance scheme is divided into two sections: BPJS Health and BPJS Manpower.
The 2011 Law on BPJS rules that the health segment will be taken care of by three state-run firms: Taspen, Asabri and Askes. The manpower section will be run by Jamsostek.
BPJS Manpower will cover work-related accidents, retirement benefits and life insurance. The scheme is expected to start operations by Jan. 1, 2015 and cover 31 million members of Indonesia's workforce by 2017.
Jamsostek currently has 11.6 million members, managing more than Rp 132 trillion ($10.8 billion) in investment funds as of the end of 2012. The figure is projected to more than double to Rp 272 trillion by 2017.
"I'm asking Jamsostek to immediately make the best preparations, so that it can carry out the noble task when the time comes," the president said.
The BPJS scheme, said Yudhoyono, is a mandate of the 2004 Law on the National Social Security System, which rules that every Indonesian citizen must be covered by social insurance.
"Thank God, after a long process, 10 years after [the law was passed]… we can implement the mandate," he said.
Earlier on Monday, the president said the government allocated Rp 19.93 trillion of the state budget to pay for the premiums of 86.4 million poor and underprivileged people under BPJS Health in 2014.
A set of government regulations and derivatives of the BPJS and social security laws are expected to start taking effect on New Year's day on Wednesday.
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