TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The vice presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno is committed to increasing the government contributions for the Healthcare and Social Security Agency or BPJS Kesehatan so that the delay in payment to hospitals will no longer be repeated.
“BPJS should not be like the conventional health insurance, but it must be a manifestation of the social security economy,” said Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno National Winning Agency spokesperson coordinator, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, when contacted in Jakarta, Monday, October 15.
Sandiaga will focus on improving the health services to the welfare of doctors and nurses, through the governance reform of BPJS. “While fixing the discipline of BPJS participants to pay contributions,” he said.
“At present, the government annually disburses funds to cover all contributions from BPJS Kesehatan participants, the category of Contribution Assistance Recipients (PBI). They are the health insurance participants from the poor, according to the National Social Security System Law. There is also a PBI by the APBD,” said the Deputy Director of BPJS Kesehatan Participants Service, Arief Syaifuddin.
The number of contributions that did not increase, both PBI and non-PBI, which were directly borne by participants, was suspected to be the cause of the BPJS Kesehatan deficit of up to Rp9 trillion this year.
In addition, BPJS Kesehatan is also stumbling because the amount of contributions is not proportional to the cost of participants' health claims. As a result, not a few representatives from BPJS Kesehatan in various regions were delinquent to hospitals.
Even so, until now there has been no certainty from the government to increase the amount of BPJS Kesehatan contributions. "Yes, everything is still calculated," said President Joko Widodo or Jokowi on September 25.
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