Physician proposes new health insurance system<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A top physician has called for the establishment
\nof a national health insurance system that would guarantee
\naffordable health care for everyone.<\/p>\n
Azrul Azwar, the chairman of the Indonesian Medical
\nAssociation and dean of University of Indonesia's School of
\nNursing, said the time had come to introduce a health insurance
\nlaw to ensure people's access to health care.<\/p>\n
Existing health insurance schemes were limited to government
\nemployees and some private sector workers and excluded the
\nmillions of people who were self-employed, such as farmers,
\nfishermen and casual laborers, Azrul said in a scientific oration
\nfor his professorship at the University of Indonesia on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Community Health Care Insurance, a mutual fund program, only
\ncovered some 31 million people, or 16 percent of the population,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
They include 15 million civil servants and one million private
\nsector workers enrolled with Askes (the state-run health
\ninsurance program), one million participants of Workers Social
\nInsurance, and 14 million participants of another health fund
\nprogram.<\/p>\n
Some 169 million others still had to pay cash every time they
\nsought medical care, he said.<\/p>\n
Azwar said the national health insurance scheme was even more
\nurgent now because medical costs kept on increasing due to
\ninflation, a growing public demand for better health services and
\ntechnological and scientific progress. Changing patterns of
\ndisease in society also affected overall medical costs, he said.<\/p>\n
To fund the national health insurance, he proposed that the
\ngovernment raise land and property taxes by a few more percentage
\npoints and use the proceeds to fund an agency, whether public or
\nprivate, to manage national health care.<\/p>\n
He said if the proposal was agreed upon, the country could
\nimmediately start a national health care program developed under
\nthe principles of gotong royong (mutual help).<\/p>\n
\"Linking the premiums to property taxes guarantees
\nproportional contributions. The rich are bound to pay more than
\nthe poor,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"The scheme will work on the principle of cross-subsidies. The
\nrich helping the poor, and the healthy helping the sick,\" he
\nsaid. (09)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/physician-proposes-new-health-insurance-system-1447893297",
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