Indonesia: world's largest health insurance system
Geplaatst: ma mar 10, 2014 6:34 pm
The roll out of Indonesia's new health care program for its 247 million people, over a decade in the works, has been bumpy. Full implementation will take effect in 2019.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pac ... nce-system
Read more:Indonesia is planning to phase- in the world’s largest single-payer health care insurance program between now and 2019. Under the new system, the government is committed to providing universal health care to its 247 million citizens, though employers and wealthier citizens are obliged to pay their own premiums.
The program was mandated by a law passed in 2004. But opposition from industry had stood in the way until now, since the law will require employers to pay premiums. The government also dragged its feet on implementation and was successfully sued in 2010 by a worker's rights group for failing to follow the law.
Still, it's a measure of Indonesia's ambitions and rising expectations that the government is trying to roll out health services for all.
Indonesia extended free health insurance to 48 percent of its population on Jan. 1. By the time the system is fully implemented in 2019 it will cover the whole country at an estimated cost of $15 billion a year – about $60 per Indonesian citizen and 15 percent of the central government’s budget.
The insurance program, known as Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), differs from the US approach in one important way: choice. JKN doesn’t have any. Organizers here are betting its stripped- down, no frills policies will satisfy popular demand.
“The single payer approach has its advantages,” says Hasbullah Thabrany, professor of health policy at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta and the architect of Indonesia's universal health insurance scheme. “We need coverage, not choice,” he says.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pac ... nce-system