Bappenas Advocates National Data for Health Insurance

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesian Minister of National Development Planning and Head of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Rachmat Pambudy, said that health issues cannot be viewed solely from the perspective of a society's economic decile classification. He underlined that health risks can affect anyone, not just those in deciles 1 to 10.

A decile is a statistical measure that divides a set of sorted data into ten equal parts, which each part representing 10 percent of the total observations. This, he continued, is because disease impacts more than just income. He expressed belief that disease is also closely related to an individual's lifestyle and circumstances.

Rachmat explained that a person who was previously financially stable could fall into poverty when facing a serious illness such as cancer. This situation demonstrates the need for a health insurance system that reaches all levels of society.

Therefore, he expressed belief that improving the health insurance system with a National Single Health Data strategy is necessary. "This National Single Health Data is the basis for improving the integrated health insurance governance ecosystem," he said at a meeting with the Chairpersons of the House of Representatives Commissions in Jakarta on Monday, February 9, 2026.

With an integrated database, his office can ensure that the selection process for aid recipients is carried out objectively and accurately. This way, he said, the mismatch between the community's socioeconomic conditions and the policies adopted will no longer occur.

"Just because someone is poor doesn't mean they should necessarily receive premium assistance in certain contexts. Meanwhile, someone who is well-off might actually need assistance," said Rachmat.

This integration will produce data that will strengthen the single database for (Health Care and Social Security Agency) BPJS Kesehatan (Health) and BPJS Ketenagakerjaan (Employment). He explained that the system will also be connected to One Data Indonesia, which will serve as the primary reference for policy planning and implementation.

On the same occasion, the Head of BPS (Central Bureau of Statistic), Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, said that the data integration was done to prevent data duplication. This approach showed that there were duplicate national identity numbers (NIK) and data on deceased residents.

The agency is working with several parties, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, to address these challenges. This guarantees that no registered person has duplicate data or replication. (Misni Parjiati/Bambang MBKA)