By Agnes Salyanty & Maria Serenade Sinurat
One morning in Could 2022, Susanti (41), awoke with a pointy ache in her abdomen. At first, she thought she was pregnant. However after an ultrasound, she acquired devastating information: a tumor was rising inside her. She instantly turned to BPJS Kesehatan, Indonesia’s Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage program, for therapy. The surgical procedure was profitable, and BPJS coated the associated fee. However the bills didn’t cease there. She nonetheless needed to pay further out-of-pocket prices for medicine and colostomy luggage, which needed to be ordered from outdoors the island. The prices rapidly added up. Throughout this troublesome time, her household stepped in to assist her handle the monetary burden.
Susanti’s story is one among many. For low-income ladies, entry to healthcare is usually a problem. In Ladies’s World Banking’s newest report, Unpaid, Underserved, Unprotected: Fixing the Healthcare Financing Hole for Indonesian Ladies, we discovered that whereas BPJS now covers 98.45% of Indonesia’s inhabitants, almost 20% of enrollees stay inactive, as many battle with monetary constraints, lack of knowledge, or difficulties navigating the system.
The unseen value of restricted healthcare entry
Ladies bear a heavier healthcare burden than males. Their medical wants are larger, but they’ve fewer monetary sources. For 16.7% of ladies, maternal healthcare alone consumes over 5% of their annual family revenue. Ladies-headed households are most affected, spending 71% of their non-food finances on public hospital care and 112% on personal hospitals.
With such excessive prices, many ladies spend much less on their very own healthcare—not as a result of they want it much less, however as a result of they merely can’t afford it. Nevertheless, the problem goes past affordability; it’s additionally about how the system is designed. Specialist providers, diagnostic checks, and non-generic medicines usually require further out-of-pocket funds. Being pregnant ultrasounds, power illness therapies, and even emergency care will be expensive. Confronted with these bills, ladies usually make troublesome selections: delaying or skipping crucial care, borrowing cash, or promoting valuables to cowl prices. Personal insurance coverage may assist, however it stays out of attain for a lot of.
Novalia, a 22-year-old mom of two in Jayapura, is among the many many ladies affected by insufficient healthcare protection. Throughout her second being pregnant, she found that the native well being heart didn’t have an ultrasound machine, and nobody supplied her a referral. Although she was coated by BPJS, she nonetheless needed to pay Rp 900,000 for 3 ultrasounds past protection. To afford it, she offered her earrings. “Generally, promoting jewelry was the one fast answer. My husband didn’t need me to do it, however it was the one possibility we had,” she stated.
Novalia additionally paid out of pocket for her youngsters’s medicines and their first go to to the Puskesmas. Her expertise illustrates how gaps within the well being system—mixed with restricted monetary choices—can go away ladies shouldering the hidden prices of maternal care on their very own.
A college scholar and mom of two, she runs a small meals enterprise from the home she shares with seven relations.
Making healthcare financing work for girls
No lady ought to have to decide on between her well being and monetary safety. A stronger, extra versatile healthcare system can guarantee ladies get the care they want with out monetary pressure. Right here’s how change can occur.
Bringing monetary literacy into healthcare
Many ladies assume BPJS covers all medical prices, solely to be stunned by further out-of-pocket bills. With out monetary planning, they battle to pay for specialist care, medicines, or maternity providers. Healthcare amenities can do greater than present therapy; they may also help ladies put together for medical bills.
Midwives, Puskesmas, and hospitals can introduce ladies to monetary planning instruments and assist them perceive BPJS advantages, personal insurance coverage, and financial savings choices. Neighborhood teams additionally play a key function in making monetary literacy extra accessible in day by day life.
However consciousness alone isn’t sufficient; it takes collaboration. The Ministry of Well being, OJK, and BPJS Kesehatan can work collectively to develop nationwide monetary literacy packages that make well being financing simpler to navigate. On the similar time, the Ministry of Finance can introduce incentives to encourage monetary planning for healthcare by way of public training and digital platforms.
When well being, finance, and training align, ladies aren’t simply knowledgeable; they’re ready. With the precise help, they’ll entry healthcare with out worry of monetary hardship
Making BPJS extra versatile by way of higher coordination
Even with monetary literacy, ladies want a system that works for them. At present, BPJS and personal insurance coverage coordination just isn’t seamless, making it troublesome to cowl prices effectively. A well-designed Coordination of Advantages (CoB) system would permit ladies to mix BPJS and personal insurance coverage to scale back monetary gaps. However unclear guidelines and complex processes make this troublesome for hospitals and insurers.
To alter this, the Ministry of Well being wants to determine clear cost-sharing guidelines and BPJS Kesehatan must simplify claims processing. Pilot packages in city and rural areas can check enhancements earlier than rolling them out nationwide. A centralized digital system would additionally velocity up claims and cut back paperwork.
Increasing reasonably priced well being financing by way of public-private partnerships
Even with BPJS, many ladies battle to afford healthcare. These with irregular incomes want extra versatile cost choices, reminiscent of well being financial savings accounts and microinsurance with small, frequent premiums. Midwives, as trusted healthcare suppliers, can introduce ladies to those monetary instruments, whereas partnerships with fintech and banks could make them accessible.
One profitable instance is the partnership between Ladies’s World Banking, Financial institution Negara Indonesia (BNI), and the Indonesian Midwives Affiliation. By coaching midwives as banking brokers, this system helped pregnant ladies open well being financial savings accounts at clinics. This allowed them to progressively save for the prices of childbirth, lowering monetary stress and strengthening the financial function of midwives. Increasing such fashions would assist extra ladies entry care with out monetary hardship.
Progressive financing for casual staff
Many ladies within the casual sector have unpredictable incomes and no well being advantages. With almost 60% of Indonesia’s workforce in casual jobs, healthcare prices is usually a heavy burden. Conventional insurance coverage fashions usually fail to fulfill their wants.
Monetary providers suppliers may also help by embedding installment funds, micro well being financial savings, and pay-later choices into digital wallets and group financial savings platforms, making it simpler for girls to save lots of in small, manageable quantities. Cooperatives, unions, and digital work platforms also can help group-based financing, serving to casual staff entry collective well being plans with decrease premiums and higher protection. Increasing these fashions may make healthcare extra reasonably priced, accessible, and sustainable for uninsured and underinsured staff.
Investing in ladies’s well being financing has a ripple impact far past the person. It strengthens households, communities, and economies. Eradicating monetary obstacles is simply step one; actual change comes from embedding options that guarantee ladies’s well being safety at each stage. A really inclusive, women-centered strategy isn’t simply an possibility. It’s the inspiration for designing insurance policies and monetary providers that supply long-term safety and help a resilient future for girls.
