Indonesia Insurance Information

Indonesia is a vast archipelago that contains the fourth most populous country in the world and the largest range of biodiversity on the planet. Rife with natural resources, investment opportunity, and fascinating culture, Indonesia's 17,508 islands have been attracting expatriates since its economy began to boom in the early 1980s. Located in Southeast Asia and bordering Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor, Indonesia is advantageously situated for travel and trade. With both a fascinating contemporary culture and a history that extends back 500,000 years to the time of “Java Man,” Indonesia is one of the most exciting places to visit today.

Some of the oldest Homo erectus fossils were unearthed in Indonesia and named the “Java Man”. The more recent peoples of Indonesia originated from an Austronesian race that likely migrated to the islands of Indonesia from Taiwan Around two millennia ago, Indonesia began to partake in the circuitous trade routes of Southeast Asia. First doing business with China and then with Indian and Middle Eastern merchants, Indonesia embraced outside cultural influences and therefore developed a fascinating culture that enlisted new ideas from all over the world.

Indonesia experienced a “golden age” between the 10th and the 13th centuries. Under a Buddhist and then Hindu leader, Indonesian culture and economy thrived. With Islamist roots that date back to the 13 th century, Indonesia is now the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. While the government emphasizes Indonesian national unity, the multitude of diverse native ethnic groups still maintain their traditions and languages.

European influence in Indonesia dates back to the 17th century, when Portuguese captain Francisco Serrao arrived in the “Spice Islands” seeking cloves and pepper. After the departure of the Portuguese, the Dutch were able to establish a very strong influence in the area, first as a territory of the Dutch East India Company and then as a Dutch colony. Dutch powers remained in Indonesia until World War II, at which point Japan occupied the islands from 1942-1945. After the Japanese surrendered, Sukarno, who had been the primary leader of the Indonesian nationalist movement, installed himself as president and declared independence from the Dutch. The Dutch did not officially cede rule until the end of 1949, after which Indonesia entered into the United Nations as an independent country.

Indonesia's history as an independent entity has been somewhat unstable. Sukarno suffered opposition from a number of political parties, barely surviving a failed coup in 1965. Finally, his main opponent, Suharto, pushed out the president in 1968 and asserted his rule. Since the establishment of Suharto's presidency and his “New Order” national rehabilitation plan, Indonesia has seen an almost uninterrupted period of growth and development.

A main component of Suharto's “New Order” plan has been to encourage international investment in Indonesian industry. Even though it is a Muslim-majority country, Indonesian cities are open and welcoming to Westerners. However, while many parts of Indonesia are accessible, keep in mind that there are still many ways in which Indonesia needs to develop.

In 2006, 17% of Indonesia's population was below the poverty line, and almost 50% lived on less than US$2 per day. The country's public services must vastly develop in order to live up to foreigners' expectations of care. If you are planning to relocate to Indonesia, it is important that you get international insurance coverage so you will be covered in the case of emergency. To receive care from an international medical facility can get expensive, but this is the safest option because some Indonesian hospitals are unable to provide up-to-par medical treatment. Having the security of global insurance will help you adjust to your life in Indonesia, giving you the freedom to explore everything there is to discover.

Moving to Southeast Asia may be daunting, and, for some international families, finding reliable healthcare facilities is the first concern. An international medical insurance plan from Pacific Prime will allow you to have Western-style healthcare that you can afford. The hospitals available for expatriates in Indonesia will provide you with just the type of treatment that you need.

We can give expatriates in Indonesia health insurance plans that will provide total cover in Southeast Asia and the entire globe. Most of our plans have a range of benefits that can be tailored to fit your international requirements. With options such as dental, maternity, out-patient services, and emergency evacuation, you know that you will receive high-quality care all over the world.

For more information about Indonesia international medical insurance that we can provide, or to receive a free quote, please contact one of our expert advisers today.

Health Care Troubles for the Insured?

According to a recent New York Times article, America has an estimated 48 million uninsured citizens and this number may soon increase due to the economic downturn being felt across the country right now. Not only is this downturn pushing people out of being insured, but it is also dramatically affecting the insured population.

An increasing reality for many of the 158 million citizens that are insured through their employers is that medical costs are becoming unaffordable. Rising prices for food and gasoline are making many Americans think twice about their spending on health care. From another perspective, rising insurance premiums, narrower coverage, and bigger deductible and co-pay requirements are pushing health care prices through the roof. It follows that many insured Americans are not financially prepared for the costs of emergency room visits and necessary surgeries. They are choosing to pay for food and gasoline over necessary doctor visits.

According to consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, nearly one fifth of the average household’s spending goes to health care. Since 2001, health care premiums for families have risen to $3,300 from $1,800 while incomes have not increased enough to cover this change. Another survey by Deloitte points out that less than 10% of American feel they are financially prepared for their future health care needs.

Employers are also feeling the effects of a soft economy. Expenses for health care are skyrocketing and as a result, many employers are passing on these increased costs to their employees. Many have begun pushing for consumer-driven plans where lower premiums come in the form of higher annual deductibles. According to the New York Times article, nearly 6 million Americans are now enrolled in such plans.

With Presidential Elections coming later this year, it should be very interesting to see what remedies each candidate puts for and how the nation responds.

USA healthcare system under serious pressure

Its no secret that the American healthcare system has some serious issues, from massive underinsurance to high treatment costs, the general outlook is pretty grim, which is why the issue has been a key point in the presidential election race. However, despite the rosy promises from the 3 main candidates the problems are about to get a whole lot worse. The issue is this, 78 million baby boomers (individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964) across the USA are about to reach retirement age and are entering a geriatric healthcare system that is simply not prepared for the patient load that it is about to receive.

As individuals age their propensity for developing a serious illness or chronic condition rise enormously, it is a simple truth that older people need more medical care than younger individuals. With this being common knowledge one would assume that the healthcare system would have adequately prepared for this eventuality, yet the reverse is true; doctors, medical facilities, and most importantly the domestic insurance industry, do not have access to the services required by geriatric patients.

An example of this upcoming fiasco can clearly be seen in California, where state legislature estimates that there is only one specialist geriatric doctor for every 4000 patients over the age of 65. In a situation like that there are going to be some serious problems, mainly pertaining to availability of treatment and quality of care especially when taking into account that a majority of these geriatric ‘specialists’ have received only rudimentary training and that doctors who have been trained in geriatric care are quickly moving to different specialties in search of better pay.

Add to this, already grim scenario, the shortfall in social security, the limited coverage offered by Medicare, and future budget cuts (expected to begin in July of this year), and essentially you are left with a healthcare system that is leaving a large proportion of Americans without the coverage, or treatment, that they deserve, but it doesn’t end there. As the healthcare system struggles to address the problem with the baby boomers other parts of the population will have services denied to them.

So what are the options? How can the system possibly cope with a patient load of this magnitude that will require constant care and attention without suffering? A good start would probably be to totally re-examine the system as it exists today. With millions of individuals either underinsured or with no insurance coverage whatsoever, the highest costs associated with medical treatment in the world, doctors with insufficient training, a high patient to doctor ratio, and a patient load that will increase every year, especially with regards to care intensive conditions (approximately 18% of the baby boomer population, or 14 million people, are expected to develop Alzheimer’s in their lifetime), it is difficult to see what can be done to resolve the matter of a system that is unable to cope with the burdens required of it.

One of the proposed solutions in to create a universal healthcare system that would be heavily subsidized by the government, however with the myriad of problems that currently exist in the system (namely healthcare in the USA being incredibly over burdened already) a universal healthcare service would be incredibly hard to implement. Add to this the wide ranging medical budget cuts, and it becomes evident that there is simply no room to create a national healthcare service providing low-cost, available care, despite the fact that this is tremendously appealing to the American public.

One, potentially, workable idea would be to subsidize the primary physicians as on of the major factors contributing to this situation arising is the extremely poor pay that frontline medical staff receive (half of the medical professionals providing care for the elderly receive less than US$ 9.56 an hour). If this is not workable, then perhaps low cost training could be used as an incentive to bring more qualified professionals to the field, as the training and qualification structure exists right now many doctors and nurses have to undergo extensive testing and, in some states, more than 150 hours on the job practice in order to be considered ‘geriatric qualified’; that’s a lot to ask for such poor reimbursement.

However, when looking at the reasons for this crisis and how it developed, a large amount of the blame seems to lay with Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest of the low-cost, ‘budget’, government backed insurers. By not providing quality coverage, creating absurdly low limits, and placing long lists of exclusions on many policies, these organizations don’t seem to have the interests of their policyholders, or the American public, at heart. Many elderly patients require care from a team, rather than just one medical professional, yet this extremely valuable service is not an included benefit under a Medicare plan, depriving these older policyholders the treatment that they need.

There is no easy or quick fix for the present medical nightmare that is about to hit the USA, all the proposed solutions, and even the possible solutions, will require a large amount of money and a complete shift in the way that Americans obtain their healthcare. All that can be done now is to wait for the major problems to start and address them as they happen, that or purchase an insurance policy from a company not linked to the US government.