Health Minister Reveals Wealthiest Citizens on JKN Premium Subsidy Recipient List

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has revealed anomalies in the Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN) participant data, showing that the wealthiest segments of society are still registered as recipients of government premium subsidies, necessitating a cleanup. During a hearing with Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Wednesday, Budi explained that these findings emerged after the government conducted a centralised data cleanup through the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), consolidating information from the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri), Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos), and other sources. “We have identified anomalies. The funds we pay are not entirely for the 50% poorest people. Even the 10% richest people have their premiums paid after consolidation with BPS data. If I may joke a bit, my former Secretary General was in that category,” he said. As detailed, the targeting inaccuracies were found across various segments, including around 47,000 central government-funded Premium Assistance Recipients (PBI) for JKN, 35 million participants from local government (Pemda) segments, and 11 million class 3 participants. According to Budi, the government is taking steps to shift participation for capable groups to prioritise the principle of justice in distributing state health subsidies. “For the sake of justice, we will redirect these inaccurately targeted numbers to those who need it more. It’s better to eliminate quotas for the richest 10% and redirect them to residents in decile five who have not yet entered PBI,” he emphasised. This reallocation step aims to ensure that state budgets are truly used to protect the population in the bottom 50% income group. To prevent similar anomalies from recurring, all relevant ministries and agencies have agreed to integrate their databases online, under the National Single Socio-Economic Data (DTSEN) managed by BPS. Budi outlined that the government has paid premiums for 159.1 million souls or more than 50% of Indonesia’s total population. From this number, a total of 11 million participations were deactivated in January 2025 because they fall outside JKN beneficiary categories, namely in DTSEN deciles 1-4, with their participation being reverified as is currently underway. In the hearing, it was also learned that the Ministry of Social Affairs, together with BPS, announced the automatic reactivation of more than 106,000 JKN PBI beneficiaries suffering from catastrophic diseases requiring immediate treatment. In the ongoing process based on the latest data obtained by the Ministry of Social Affairs, there are 246,280 beneficiaries who have received reactivation through a Ministerial Decree (SK) in March. This increased to 305,864 beneficiaries reactivated for April 2026. Furthermore, 1,661,098 individuals who were previously JKN premium assistance recipients have shifted segments. “From these 11 million data points, we realise they are not yet perfect, so some are accurate, some are not. That has been followed up. It has been addressed by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Affairs, and BPJS to clean it up, so that this reallocation, with good intentions to return the 11 million PBI quotas given to relatively richer residents back to poorer residents, can run well,” said Budi Gunadi.