Saturday, March 14, 2015

National scene: BPJS should be decentralized



Experts have called on the Constitutional Court to strip the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) of its overall authority.

Speaking as a witness during a hearing on Thursday at the court, University of Indonesia (UI) public health analyst Yaslis Ilyas said that management of the national health insurance (JKN) program should not be conducted solely by BPJS Kesehatan.

“If we’re talking about providing universal healthcare for 250 million people [as planned by the government by 2019], then a centralized and single entity like BPJS Kesehatan will surely struggle,” he said. “We are talking about an archipelago like Indonesia with poor infrastructure and limited distribution of health services after all.”

Yaslis said that ideally there should be one BPJS office in each province.

If this was not possible, then at least BPJS Kesehatan should be supported by at least five regional offices.

“Also, we need at least four BPJS offices in the capital, one to handle poor people, one to manage regular workers, one to handle civil servants, including military personnel and police officers, and another to manage professionals,” Yaslis said.

He said the establishment of branches of BPJS was possible since a ruling by the Constitutional Court in 2005 allowed regional governments to manage their own regional health insurance (Jamkesda) programs.

- See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/13/national-scene-kbpjs-should-be-decentralized.html#sthash.ZV4AsIY7.dpuf

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