Askes to raise premium of health insurance

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned Health Insurance Company (Askes) has requested that the House of Representatives approve the company's plan to increase its premium in order to improve its services.

President of the company, Sonja Roesma, told reporters yesterday after a hearing with the House's Commission VIII, which oversees social welfare, that the company has no intention of charging civil servants, who are their main clients, more than the current premium. The company instead expects the government to pay the difference between the old and the new premium.

The state budget only provides subsidies for veterans, not civil servants, in the insurance business, she said.

The current premium, which is two percent of the basic salary, was determined by the government in 1977.

According to Sonja, in 1993 Askes asked for House approval to increase the premium, to which the legislative body replied that the company could only increase it as long as it would not burden civil servants.

"Afterwards we discussed the matter with officials of the Ministry of Finance and the State Secretariat but they said the government was not yet able to provide aid to civil servants in the matter," she added.

Sonja said that based on research conducted by a lecturer at the Public Health School of the University of Indonesia in 1992, the ideal premium percentage would be 3.75 percent of the basic salary.

She said that today the company needs more than two percent to reach the break-even point.

In response to the Commission's question about the company's service, which clients have long complained about, Sonja said that Askes has tried to improve it.

Legislators said that most complaints were objections to paying extra for medicine.

Sonja said, "In our package, patients need not pay extra because the medicine is included in the treatment".

Sulastomo, the operational director of the company, told legislators that Askes has a list and selling price of medicines in order to standardize those used in hospitals.

"The listed medicines aren't cheap but they should be effective and have no side effects," he said.

He said Askes will urge hospitals which have not started using the listed medicines to begin doing so soon.

Commission members also said that Askes clients had also complained about the efficiency of the company's services, which necessitates going from the hospital to Askes which is located far away.

"Why hasn't Askes built representative offices in the hospitals it has authorized to treat clients?"

Sonja said that Askes has considered the idea but it needs funds to do so and "at the moment the company cannot afford it."

Sulastomo said that although there were still complaints, a poll last year showed that 85 percent of respondents thought Askes' service was getting better.

Only 0.75 percent of the respondents said the service was bad.

"This is a drop from five percent in 1993," he added. (05)