In the past three years and thanks to continued pressure from the trade unions, Indonesia has set up a historical system of universal social security and health with a tripartite structure. We met with Rekson Silaban, Commissioner BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (Employment), one of the two elected board members on behalf of the trade unions to discuss the achievements and challenges of this system.
History
After independence, Indonesia had only a couple of limited specific schemes, only for formal and public sector. In 2004, Indonesia passed law n°40 for a social security institution, Jamsotek, which was trying to expand social security schemes to the private sector but which faced many challenges in its implementation, with limited payouts and where any profits went to the state. After three annual general strikes demanding social security, legislation n° 24 was passed in 2011, which organized social security related to work, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.
BPJS Employment was established in January 2014 and is fully operational since July 2015 with 336 offices countrywide. Their philosophy is based on the independency philosophy and pride to settle socio-economic risks. Independency means no dependence on other people in financing healthcare treatment, senior age life, and family following a death. Pride means such security is obtained as a right instead of other people's act of sympathy. To accomplish optimal financing and benefits, the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan programme is conducted collectively, in which the younger generation assists the older generation, healthy people assist ill persons, and higher-income persons assist lower-income people. This system was newly non-for-profit, which for the first time doesn’t return profit to government but is being re-invested in the social security (in 2015, profit of almost 40 million€ or 624 billion IDR). By end 2015, 2.000 companies and 20 million workers were covered, out of Indonesian total workforce of 100 million people. In 2015, they have seen a 15% increase from 16,79 million to 19,27 million workers affiliated, which is still only one out of five workers.
History
After independence, Indonesia had only a couple of limited specific schemes, only for formal and public sector. In 2004, Indonesia passed law n°40 for a social security institution, Jamsotek, which was trying to expand social security schemes to the private sector but which faced many challenges in its implementation, with limited payouts and where any profits went to the state. After three annual general strikes demanding social security, legislation n° 24 was passed in 2011, which organized social security related to work, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.
BPJS Employment was established in January 2014 and is fully operational since July 2015 with 336 offices countrywide. Their philosophy is based on the independency philosophy and pride to settle socio-economic risks. Independency means no dependence on other people in financing healthcare treatment, senior age life, and family following a death. Pride means such security is obtained as a right instead of other people's act of sympathy. To accomplish optimal financing and benefits, the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan programme is conducted collectively, in which the younger generation assists the older generation, healthy people assist ill persons, and higher-income persons assist lower-income people. This system was newly non-for-profit, which for the first time doesn’t return profit to government but is being re-invested in the social security (in 2015, profit of almost 40 million€ or 624 billion IDR). By end 2015, 2.000 companies and 20 million workers were covered, out of Indonesian total workforce of 100 million people. In 2015, they have seen a 15% increase from 16,79 million to 19,27 million workers affiliated, which is still only one out of five workers.