INFO NASIONAL – The President Director of BPJS Kesehatan, Ali Ghufron, represented Indonesia again as one of the panelists in the webinar The 3rd Edition of Arogya Manthan in the session “General Health Care (UHC) Roadmap in India“Held on Thursday, September 23rd, by the Indian National Health Authority.

Ghufron said the number of JKN-KIS participants had reached 226.3 million participants, or about 83.5 percent of the total population of Indonesia, by September 17, 2021. This participation has continued to grow rapidly since 2014, much faster than in other countries running similar programs. Not to mention that Indonesia is a country with the fourth largest population in the world and has more than 17,000 islands, adding to the complexity and challenges of achieving UHC.

“The UHC target set in the National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) is 98% of the Indonesian population. Although it looks like it is in sight, the process to get there still requires hard work from everyone Parties from the government, medical staff, health facilities to the community, ”he said.

Ghufron said universal health coverage is a situation where everyone can access the quality health services they need without financial difficulty. The JKN-KIS program has shown positive progress in every keyword. The first key word is “everyone”, which translates as the entire population of Indonesia.

“It is not easy for us to register 83.5 percent of the Indonesian population as JKN-KIS participants in almost eight years. “This performance is pretty good compared to other countries that take dozens or even decades to register the majority of their population as social security participants,” he said.

The second keyword is “access”. In its 2018 publication, Health Policy Plus showed that outpatient and inpatient use increased in all economic sectors after the introduction of the JKN-HIS program in 2014. This shows that the JKN-KIS program could improve access to formal health facilities and empower the poor to seek treatment compared to before the health insurance program that socialist existed.

The third key word is “quality of health care”, which is reflected in an increase in the satisfaction index of the participants. The satisfaction index continues to rise from 78.6 in 2014 to 81.5 in 2020. This shows that people are increasingly satisfied with the JKN-KIS health services they receive, ”said Ghufron.

The fourth and final keyword is “no financial hardship”. In 2020, the results of a study by the Institute for Economic and Community Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (LPEM FEB UI) showed that the JKN-KIS program saved 8.1 million people from poverty in 2019 and 1.6 million poor people emerged from severe poverty due to household health care spending.

“The JKN-KIS program’s path to universal health coverage needs much improvement, but we are optimistic that the JKN-KIS program is already well underway towards the goals of UHC,” said Ghufron.