Thailand
Indonesia: Insurance firms lose low-income healthcare consumers
The Indonesian General Insurance Association (AAUI) is reporting that the ratio of health insurance premiums to the premiums for other insurance products declined to only 2.3 percent in 2018 because of the state-sponsored Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan).
AAUI executive director Dody Ahmad Sudiyar said on Sunday that it was a continuing decline from the previous year. In 2016, the ratio was 6.89 percent and in 2017 it was still 6.86 percent. However, he said that the health insurance business still grew by 6.7 percent annually in 2018.
In response to the situation, private insurance firms are currently putting more focus on attracting high-income customers as low-income consumers are already covered by BPJS Kesehatan.
“The insurance firms no longer seek low-income customers,” he said, adding that the target of the insurance firms were those who wanted premium service health care, services that were not covered by BPJS Kesehatan.
“They are consumers who need direct services of specialist doctors, specialist hospitals, and those who need premium medical evacuation services,” he said as quoted by kontan.co.id.
Insurance firm PT Asuransi Adira Dinamika revealed it had 92,000 health insurance clients in 2018 and 2019, compared to 177,000 from 2015 to 2017.
The head of Adira Insurance’s direct business division, Eka Widiastuti, confirmed the impact of BPJS Kesehatan on the company’s health insurance business.
Meanwhile, PT Asuransi Sinar Mas director Dumasi M.M. Samosir said he still saw potential of growth of health insurance.
The portion of health instance handled by the company, compared to other products, was still 7 percent, he said, adding that the company was diversifying its products to try to maintain growth in health insurance. (bbn)
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/18/insurance-firms-lose-low-income-healthcare-consumers.html