Kennial Caroline Laia – State-owned health insurance firm Askes says it is ready to roll out Indonesia's first national health care insurance scheme early next month.
Fajriadinur, director of services for Askes, said that 99.99 percent of the preparations for the scheme, known as JKN, are in place and the scheme is set to be introduced.
"Up until now we have 110 million JKN participants; 86.4 percent from community health protection scheme [known as Jamkesmas], 6.5 percent from the state worker insurance agency [Jamsostek], and 16.5 percent from the state sector, including police and military personnel," Fajriadinur said during a discussion on Wednesday.
"Everyone will be registered by the time the program begins. Around 12,000 public health centers are working with us and that number is expected to reach 15,869 by the time the scheme kicks in," Fajriadinur added.
Despite Fajriadinur's optimism, there are many challenges waiting once the scheme is implemented, academics and doctors said at the same discussion.
Hasbullah Thabrany, a public health professor at University Indonesia, pointed at the reluctance of private hospitals in Indonesia to join the scheme because of the low payments they stand to receive if they treat JKN members.
"So far private hospitals are not fully involved. They are standing on the sidelines, adopting a wait-and-see attitude," Hasbullah said, adding that private hospitals needed some time to consider their options and future plans before committing themselves to the scheme.
As of now, there are 1,040 hospitals signed up to the program, but not a single private one. "Private hospitals need to evaluate just what the costs would be in treating those covered by the scheme and how much of that cost they would be able to claim back," Hasbullah said.
He went on to say the reluctance shown by private hospitals was understandable given they were run along commercial lines and they could not be forced to join JKN.
Hasbullah called on the government to make the program more attractive to the private sector. "It is the government's task to get them [private hospitals] involved," Hasbullah said.
He went on to say that given the scale of the program, all related government offices and officials should be transparent about the budget provided for the program to avoid suspicion.