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Jakarta –
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) recognized that people’s purchasing power has decreased. Reflected by the basic elements of deflation of 0.13%, which can be interpreted as a decrease in food demand.
But on the same day, Jokowi raised BPJS health fees for Class I and II, which went into effect on July 1, 2020. According to the Director of Research at the Center for Economic Reform in Indonesia (CORE), Abdullah, the politics actually decreased purchasing power.
“Some of the middle class are also affected by layoffs or are unable to open businesses for revenues to decrease. Increasing BPJS rates for them will increase the burden, which means there will be a decrease in purchasing power,” Piter said. AFP, Wednesday (05/13/2020).
According to Piter, the government considers whether BPJS Health groups I and II are the middle group that does not experience a decrease in purchasing power. That was also considered inappropriate.
“Therefore, the government assumes that the middle class does not experience a decrease in purchasing power, whose purchasing power falls only at the base level. Therefore, I do not believe that the government’s policy is correct,” he said.
Piter assessed that the government should not increase rates to cover the deficit. BPJS Health was asked to do efficiency, deficiencies were covered by the State Budget (APBN).
“In fact, the dilemma is that if there is no increase, it will be a burden on the state budget, while the state budget is in a depressed condition. If, in my opinion, the BPJS deficit is better covered by not raising rates ” .
