JAKARTA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's financial regulator has dropped a plan to make policyholders contribute to private health insurance claims, an official said on Friday, amid concerns the requirement would increase financial pressure on the public.
The revised rule will take effect in March and give policyholders the option to choose products where claims are fully covered by the insurance company, scrapping a previous requirement under which they would have had to pay at least 10% of each claim.
Insurers will still be able to offer co-pay products but only at 5% of the total claim or a maximum of 300,000 rupiah ($17.83) for outpatient care and 3 million rupiah ($178.25) for inpatient care, according to the revised regulation.
"Through this new rule, we want to strengthen the roles and responsibilities of all parties in the health insurance ecosystem ... and protection for policyholders," Ogi Prastomiyono, the commissioner for the insurance industry at Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) said in a press conference.
The previous co-payment clause was announced last year in response to a significant increase in claims due to the rising cost of private healthcare and also to prevent overtreatment, OJK said at the time.
Lawmakers overseeing the insurance sector said the plan had to be reconsidered to take into account the financial impact on policyholders.
By law, all Indonesians must join the government-run national health insurance scheme with some on higher incomes also buying private health insurance. The industry is dominated by foreign players, including Prudential, Allianz Group and AIA Group.
($1 = 16,830.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
