House endorses social security bill

House endorses social security bill

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives and the government passed on Tuesday
a bill on social security, paving the way for the country's poor
to receive free health services.

Interim coordinating minister for people's welfare A. Malik
Fadjar said the government would implement the bill step by step,
starting with providing the country's 40 million poor people with
free health care.

"Under the system, the government is obliged to allocate funds
to pay insurance premiums for the poor," said Malik, adding that
the funds would be taken from the state budget.

The national social security system (SJSN) will cover life
insurance and workers' welfare, as well as severance payments and
pensions, as required by the Constitution.

To identify the poor, the government will use existing data
from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"The law will function as an umbrella for all laws that
regulate state-owned social security firms and their existing
programs," Malik told the media.

The House special committee also agreed not to liquidate
state-owned PT Jamsostek, PT Taspen, PT Askes, PT Jasa Raharja
and PT Asabri, which provide social security to workers, civil
servants, servicemen and public transportation passengers
respectively.

The bill on SJSN earlier sparked opposition from employers and
labor unions alike as it was deemed to create confusion among
employers and workers, and overlapped with existing laws on
social security programs for workers, civil servants and
servicemen.

The new scheme will require the government to provide social
security for the country's 220 million people, whereas current
insurance schemes only cover 20 percent of the population.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) secretary-general
Djimanto said earlier that Apindo would accept the bill so long
as it did not overburden employers and workers.

Under the law, the government is also to issue a regulation
that defines the unemployed, as many people who work fewer than
35 hours per week or earn a monthly income below the subsistence
level -- or disguised unemployment -- are included in the open
unemployment category.

According to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration's
director general for labor standards Muzni Tambusai, single
unemployed people will be charged a health care premium
equivalent to 3 percent of the regional minimum wage, while
married unemployed people will be charged 6 percent.

The bill will automatically become law one month after its
passage, with or without the president's endorsement.