Health authorities are planning not only to continue a health security scheme for the poor, known as Jamkesmas, but will broaden its coverage, officials said.
“I would like to make it clear that Jamkesmas will be continued, and the word ‘insurance’ should be taken as another form of social security,” Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said on Tuesday.
Speaking during a visit to the Suara Pembaruan evening newspaper, a sister company of the Jakarta Globe, Endang also said that the categories of those eligible to be covered by the health security scheme would be extended.
Chalik Masulili, the Health Ministry’s director for Jamkesmas, cited the new categories as victims of natural disasters and the inhabitants of social institutions such as orphanages, nursing homes, houses for the disabled, drug rehabilitation centers and prison inmates.
He said that victims of natural disasters were often suddenly dispossessed while the majority of those in the other categories were also poor.
“We would also like to streamline the bureaucratic procedure for these people to be covered,” Chalik said.
Disaster victims and those living in social institutions will only need a letter from their local social service officer to become eligible for the Jamkesmas while inmates just needed a letter from their prison directors.
He said the initiative has gained the support from the ministries of Home Affairs, Social Affairs and Law and Human Rights.
The scheme’s expansion, Chalik said, was officially launched at the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta on Monday.
Apart from the new additions, he added, the Health Ministry was working to include the poor and disabled not living in institutions and employees in the informal sector.
Endang said that in view of the high cost of health care that had to be borne by the state, she intended to encourage the some 8,000 health community centers at the village level across the archipelago to be more active in preventive measures.
“So far 10 percent of the 76.4 million [eligible] people have made use of Jamkesmas. Covering that many people is costly, that is why we are also working toward preventive measures and schemes on financing diversification,” she said.
She said the health costs of employees were the responsibility of their employers, while those of civil servants and the poor were the responsibilities of the government.
“The insurance scheme means that fees collected by its members are used to pay for those in need,” she said.
“For Jamkesmas, the money is given to each districts and is disbursed via several procedures,” she added.
Originally, funds for Jamkesmas were to be disbursed by a special implementing agency but that institution has yet to be established, Chalik said.
“The implementing agency would have to be a non-profit body. And it also has to be active, effective, transparent and accountable,” he explained.
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