Askes eyes rise in premium income

YOGYAKARTA (JP): State-owned health insurance company PT Asuransi Kesehatan (Askes) has forecast a 10 percent increase in premium income this year to Rp 550 billion (about US$58.5 million) from around Rp 500 billion last year.

The company's managing director Ori Andari Sutaji said that the projected 10 percent rise in premium income was expected to come from an increase in non-civil servant members.

"We expect to receive about Rp 50 billion in premium income from non-civil servant members this year," she told reporters after attending the inauguration of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University's Medical Center.

PT Askes, which focused on civil servants, including the employees of state firms, in the early years of its existence, has been allowed to provide insurance services to other customers.

In 2000, the company booked about Rp 400 billion in premium income from its four million civil servant clients and other Rp 100 billion from other customers.

Ori Andari said that claims from civil servant members amounted to 87 percent of the total premium income obtained from civil servants while those from other customers accounted for about 70 percent of the total premiums they had paid.

"Our overhead costs are relatively low," she stressed.

She said that this year the company would launch "excellent service" to upgrade service to its customers.

She said that "excellent service" would make it easier for clients to obtain PT. Askes's services through simpler administrative procedures. (44)