Jakarta – With the majority of the public still unaware of the national healthcare program (JKN), the government initiative remains unpopular, two months after being implemented.
According to statistics provided by the Social Security Provider Agency for the health sector (BPJS Kesehatan), the number of participants has fallen short of the government's projections.
The current number of participants is around 117 million, out of Indonesia's total population of 240 million, while the target set by the government is 140 million people by the end of this year.
BPJS Kesehatan's service director, Fajriadinur, said that all stakeholders, including his institution, would put in effort to raise public awareness on the program. "BPJS Kesehatan is not only a cashier for this program," he said on Wednesday.
The institution is planning to add more health services and partner hospitals to reach more people. BPJS Kesehatan, however did not have details on new health services.
To boost its subscription rate, the State-Owned Enterprise Ministry has also gathered all state-owned enterprises managements to sign a commitment to raise national healthcare awareness. They agreed to register all their employees and family members in the program.
Out of the 117 million now covered, 790,351 participants registered independently. The remaining 116.2 million are civil servants, soldiers, police officers and fully-subsidized poor people, who were automatically registered in the government's list, as well as private employees formerly covered by PT Jamsostek.
"We are optimistic that we can achieve our target of 121.6 million people this year," said Ikhsan, spokesman of BPJS Kesehatan.
Fajriadinur also said that the low-subscription rate was also caused by glitches experienced by BPJS Kesehatan itself. He acknowledged that some patients with chronic illnesses, particularly those who had been covered by PT Askes, the former state health insurance company, had complained of late prescription deliveries.
"The Health Ministry has ordered additional supplies of medicine that will be provided within 30 days of patients filling their prescriptions," he said.
Fajriadinur also said that his institution was working on ensuring quick hospital claim payments. "If payments are slower than expected, it is because we have to verify the documents first," Fadjrianur said, adding that hospitals should provide complete information concerning all charges.
According to data from BPJS Kesehatan, 985 hospitals have already filed claims with BPJS Kesehatan, out of the 1,750 hospitals partnered with the institution. However, out of the 985 hospitals, only 155 hospitals have been paid a total amount of Rp 68 billion (US$5.84 million).
The institution had estimated that the total amount of claims from all hospitals in January would be around Rp 2 trillion. The total premium collected was around Rp 2.5 trillion. (gda)