Askes to raise premium of health insurance

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)