Firm, MP criticize insurance bill

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta

The bill on social security will add a greater burden to employees, who will be required to pay premiums for their insurance, an insurance firm director said.

Jamsostek finance director Widjokongko Puspoyo said that under the social security system bill, employees would be obliged to pay for part of their own premium for health insurance, which is now covered entirely by employers.

"For health insurance policy holders, the new social security system scheme will create workers' resistance," he said during a hearing with House Commission VII on labor affairs.

The bill, Widjokongko said, would also spark more controversy due to an article saying retirees would receive the minimum pension amount, while the present scheme states that pension funds would be a certain amount of money taken from the last salary.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator Rekso Ageng Herman also said that the social insurance bill would not work if it remained unrevised.

"The bill suggests a combination of insurances - health, accident, retirement protection, pension and life insurances, which are not applicable. The bill needs revision," he said.

He sought clarity over who would cover any claim if the government body authorized to run the social insurance program went bankrupt.

"The bill must not be endorsed hastily. We should discuss it carefully," he said.

State pension insurance company PT Taspen director Ahmad Subianto said he disagreed with the plan to put Taspen into the new social security system.

The government has submitted to the House of Representatives a draft law on social insurance that would cover health, accident, pension, life and retirement.

The bill stipulates that employees and employers would share the burden of paying premiums.

For accident insurance, the bill states that the employers would cover the entire premium.

In the case of poor people, the bill says the government would provide subsidies or cover all of their premiums, but it would be further regulated under a government regulation.

At present, workers in government institutions and the private sector are registered with one of the insurance firms PT Askes, Asabri, Taspen and Jamsostek. Civil servants, for example, do not pay accident insurance premiums.

The bill also states that a non-profit body would be established to run the social security system.

The existing social insurance firms: PT Jamsostek, PT Askes, PT Asabri and PT Taspen will maintain their roles, but they must gradually adjust their programs to the social security system law.