BPJS Health shares experiences with India in reaching UHC

Jakarta, Jamkesnews – The director of BPJS Kesehatan, Ali Ghufron, again represented Indonesia as one of the panelists in the webinar The 3rd edition of Arogya Manthan at the meeting”General Health Care (UHC) Roadmap in India“, Organized by the National Health Authority of India, Thursday (23.09.). On this occasion, Ghufron was entrusted by the Government of India to share the path of the JKN-KIS program to achieve universal health insurance in Indonesia.

Ghufron said by September 17, 2021, the number of JKN-KIS participants had reached 226.3 million participants, or about 83.5% of the total population of Indonesia. 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. While it looks like it is already in sight, the process to get there still takes hard work from all parties, from government, medical staff, health institutions to the community itself, ”he said.

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

“It is not an easy thing for us to register 83.5% of the Indonesian population as JKN-KIS participants in almost eight years. However, this can be considered a pretty good feat compared to other countries that take dozens or even decades to register the majority of their population as social security participants, ”he said.

Ghufron went on, 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 can improve access to formal health facilities and empower poor treatment compared to pre-compulsory health insurance.

“The third key word is ‘quality of health services’, which translates into the subscriber satisfaction index. The satisfaction index continues to rise from 78.6 in 2014 to 81.5 in 2020, suggesting that people are increasingly satisfied with the JKN-KIS health benefits they receive, ”explained 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 living in greater poverty who are severely affected by household health expenditure.

“The JKN-KIS program’s path to general health insurance still needs major improvements, but we are optimistic that the JKN-KIS program is already up and running. on the route towards the ideals of UHC, ”said Ghufron.

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