PT Askes should be liquidated: Hospitals
PT Askes should be liquidated: Hospitals
JAKARTA (JP): A one-day discussion suggested here on Saturday
that the state health insurance company PT Askes be liquidated or
merged with other insurance firms for its failure to perform well
up to now.
The discussion, organized by the Indonesian Health Consumers
Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI), was attended by officials from PT
Askes and several hospitals in Indonesia.
PT Askes has long been a target of complaints for its
complicated and bureaucratic procedures.
The strong call to liquidate PT Askes came from the
Association of Jakarta Metropolitan Hospitals (IRSJAM).
"Most hospitals have to subsidize an average 45 percent (of
the total medical treatment costs) for PT Askes," said IRSJAM
chairman Dady Tirtono.
The vice president of financial and general affairs of the
Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta, Abubakar Alatas, joined the
criticism, saying that the insurance claim (provided by PT Askes)
was not sufficient to cover the treatment expenses.
"The result is a deficit in hospitals' budgets," he said.
"We have to subsidize at least Rp 3 billion (US$375,000) every
year."
He disclosed that some 95,581 Askes members visited Fatmawati
Hospital last year and cost the hospital some Rp 10.76 billion
($1.3 million).
"PT Askes could only cover up to Rp 2.9 billion ($362,500),"
Abubakar said. With Rp 4 billion in government subsidies, there
will be Rp 3.86 billion ($482,500) left to be covered by the
hospital."
He added that Askes members, mostly civil servants and their
families, only had to pay a very small amount in extra money for
the hospital's services.
"We only charge each patient between Rp 1,000 (13 cents) or Rp
5,000, but the patients are often angry at us. They said PT Askes
should cover all of the expenses," Abubakar said.
Every year, he added, the hospital only collected some
Rp 400 million from the extra payments.
Abubakar said that merging PT Askes with the Workers' Social
Security Scheme (Jamsostek) and Workers Insurance (Astek) was a
good idea.
"The premiums of Jamsostek and Astek are much higher than PT
Askes. Besides, most of the workers are healthy so they can
'subsidize' other members," he said.
Premium
According to PT Askes' operational director I Gede Subawa,
the company also had trouble covering expenses as the insurance
premium was relatively small.
There are a total of 13.8 million civil servants and their
families who use PT Askes' service.
Each civil servant is obliged to pay 2 percent of his or her
basic salary or a family subsidy for family coverage in the
insurance scheme.
Gede said the average premium was Rp 2,500 per family per
month, totaling about Rp 400 billion.
PT Askes president Orie Andari Sutadji revealed in July that
87 percent of the money was spent on Askes members' health bills.
Orie pointed out that medication for a person with a chronic
disease, for example, could cost a minimum of Rp 300,000 per
month.
Quoting last year's data, she said PT Askes spent some Rp 31
billion on 2,880 kidney failure patients who needed hemodialysis.
She expected the amount would increase to Rp 44 billion, with
the same number of patients, due to currency fluctuations.
Internist Rully Rusli from the Kidney Caring Foundation said
that the government should pay more attention to the disease
as only 9.5 percent of the kidney failure patients in Indonesia
could afford hemodialysis.
"Only 7.5 percent of them (the 9.5 percent) are covered by
Askes, while 90.5 percent can't afford it," he said.
Therefore, he added, it was important for PT Askes to be
merged with other service to strengthen the health insurance
system. (09)