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.