Jakarta – An activist says that new Health Minister Regulation No. 21/2013 on HIV/AIDS control has brought a fresh breeze in fulfilling the rights of people with HIV/AIDS to get a guarantee of private insurance coverage.

Article 47 (1) of the 2013 regulation requires every health insurance provider to cover partly or overall the medication and health treatment costs of HIV policyholders, based on the amount of premiums they pay. It further stipulates that such coverage must be mentioned in policy information for the policyholders.

"There should be no more excuse for any health insurance providers, including private ones, to reject HIV-treatment insurance payments claimed by people with HIV/AIDS who sign up for an insurance program," said Indonesia AIDS Coalition executive director, Aditya Wardhana, in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The Indonesia AIDS Coalition is a non-profit organization based on communities of people with HIV/AIDS that works to promote good governance within the management of AIDS programs in the country.

Up to now, health insurance payments claimed by people with HIV/AIDS have been always rejected by private insurance companies even when joined the insurance schemes before being diagnosed. In many cases, the rejection of health insurance claims has made their HIV/AIDS status public and has led to dismissal.

The financial burden of HIV/AIDS medication and treatment should be jointly covered by the government and the private sector as the number of Indonesian living with HIV-AIDS has reached 32,000 people.

"AIDS is a shared problem, so the private insurance sector should play a more active role in curbing the spread of the infection," said Aditya. (fan/ebf)