Expert: Healthcare Costs Can Disrupt Finances If Not Prepared For

Many people still view healthcare costs as an expense that only arises when they fall ill. In reality, without proper planning, health needs can become a factor that disrupts the financial condition of both families and individuals. Financial Expert Aliyah Natasya stated that healthcare costs need to be seen as part of long-term financial planning. According to her, health risks can occur at any time and often arrive unpredictably. “Many people focus on preparing funds for consumption, education, or investment, but have not yet made health a priority in financial planning. Yet when health is compromised, the impact is not only physical but also financial,” Aliyah said at the launch of the U-aang feature in Jakarta on Wednesday. Aliyah explained that the costs of health check-ups, treatment, and medical care tend to rise year after year. Therefore, people need to start building the habit of allocating health funds from their productive years. According to her, the younger generation often feels they are still healthy and thus delays preparing health funds. In fact, the earlier a person prepares for these needs, the lighter the financial burden they will have to bear later on. “Preparing health funds does not mean waiting to get sick. Preparation is done precisely when one is still healthy, so that when risks arise, we do not have to sacrifice other financial needs,” she said. Aliyah assessed that health management and financial management are now increasingly interconnected. Awareness to carry out regular health check-ups, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and have good financial planning can help people reduce the risk of large, unexpected expenses. She added that unprepared healthcare costs have the potential to disrupt family financial stability, ranging from excessive use of emergency funds to the postponement of various other financial goals. Therefore, people need to build the habit of recording health needs in their monthly budget, having adequate health protection, and setting aside special funds for future medical needs. “Healthy financial planning is not only about increasing assets, but also about how we anticipate risks that can disrupt our finances. One of those is health risk,” Aliyah said. On the same occasion, PT Prodia Digital Indonesia together with blu by BCA Digital launched the U-aang digital payment feature integrated within the U by Prodia application. This feature allows users to make payments for various health services, ranging from laboratory tests, vaccinations, and health consultations to purchasing health products, more practically within a single application. AVP Product of PT Prodia Digital Indonesia Christian Christopher said the presence of U-aang is part of an effort to make it easier for the public to access digital health services without complicated processes. He said the ease of transactions is expected to encourage people to monitor and maintain their health more regularly. Meanwhile, Head of Digital Business of PT Bank Digital BCA Edwin Tirta said the collaboration through the Bank-as-a-Service (BaaS) service enables the integration of health and digital financial services in one ecosystem. Through this feature, users can not only make payments for health services but also utilise various digital banking services more easily and in an integrated manner.