Regarding the 7.3 Million Inactive BPJS PBI Participants, the Minister of Social Affairs: This is Not a Reduction, but a Transfer
BEKASI, KOMPAS.com – The Minister of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Saifullah Yusuf, stated that the deactivation of millions of participants in the BPJS Kesehatan program under the Penerima Bantuan Iuran Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (PBI JKN) category is not a reduction in the allocation of assistance. According to him, this step is an effort to redirect assistance to members of the community who are deemed more deserving.
“The deactivation does not reduce the allocation. Instead, it redirects assistance from recipients who no longer meet the criteria to those who do and are in greater need,” said Saifullah to the media when met in North Cikarang on Wednesday (February 25, 2026).
According to him, this step is part of an effort to adjust the recipient data to ensure that assistance is more targeted.
In the future, the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) will strengthen cooperation with village governments in the process of updating socio-economic data. In addition, the Ministry will also strengthen coordination through formal channels, starting from the RT/RW (local community units), sub-district/village, Social Service (Dinsos), regents, Ministry of Social Affairs, to the managers of the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS).
“We will strengthen these formal channels. So that more people or families who have not been identified or recorded can be included in the data, and we can provide assistance,” he said.
He explained that changes in the socio-economic conditions of the community are dynamic and occur every day.
“Every day, there are people being born, people getting married, people moving up the economic ladder, and people moving down. So, the data is dynamic,” said Saifullah.
According to him, the increase in the level of welfare normally occurs gradually. However, the dynamics on the ground require the government to be quick in updating data.
“But normally, people move up one decile at a time, gradually. And we have to be quick to update the data,” he said.
Saifullah also acknowledged that the process of deactivating PBI JKN membership has not been adequately socialized to the public.
“We will improve the mechanism. We appreciate that suggestion (socialization),” said Saifullah.
He explained that in the future, a grace period will be implemented before the membership status is deactivated, so that participants have time to reactivate or submit objections.