Healthcare in Indonesia: no treaty, no state insurance for retirees, and a visa that doesn't ask for it
Indonesia is not a treaty country: no S1, no CAK. The Indonesian JKN system, run by BPJS Kesehatan, names as participants foreigners who work there for at least six months, not retirees. And the E33F retirement visa does not ask for health insurance. Your healthcare is therefore a private policy you choose yourself, and nobody checks whether it's any good.
4 min read
Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
If you move to Indonesia as a retiree, you are fully responsible yourself for a health insurance policy that is any good, and nobody checks it. On every Bali checklist "arrange insurance" is somewhere near the bottom. On this site it is at the top, because for whoever wants to grow old here, healthcare is the feasibility question.
That comes down to three things:
- No CAK. Indonesia is not a treaty country, so there is no S1 and no CAK: the route through which the Netherlands arranges your healthcare in a treaty country.
- No JKN. The Indonesian JKN system names as participants foreigners who work in Indonesia for at least six months, and a retiree doesn't work there.
- No visa requirement. The find is with the immigration service: the E33F retirement visa asks for no health insurance among its documents.
Why doesn't the CAK route work here?
Whoever emigrates to a treaty country with a Dutch statutory pension or statutory benefit is, according to the CAK, legally obliged to insure through the CAK, and pays a treaty contribution for it, the premium for that insurance. That route exists only for the countries on the CAK's list.
| Treaty country | Indonesia | |
|---|---|---|
| Which countries | EU, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, North Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey | not on the list |
| Healthcare through the CAK | yes, mandatory with a statutory pension or benefit | no |
| Treaty contribution | yes | no |
| Your Dutch basic insurance | ends on emigration | ends on emigration |
Your Dutch basic insurance therefore stops on the day you deregister, and nothing comes in its place. Even with a statutory pension or an AOW benefit there is no CAK insurance to fall back on for Indonesia.
Can you join the Indonesian system?
The Indonesian Ministry of Health describes the national health insurance JKN as mandatory, with as participants everyone, including foreigners who work in Indonesia for at least six months, who has paid the contribution. If you are employed in Indonesia, you belong to it. If you come on a retirement, Silver Hair or Second Home visa and don't work, the scheme does not name you. As a retiree, don't count on it.
What does your visa ask in terms of insurance?
Nothing, and that is the point. For the E33F retirement visa the immigration service names a passport, a bank statement with at least 2,000 dollars over three months, a photograph, a guarantee from the guarantor and proof of 3,000 dollars of income a month. For the Silver Hair (E33E) they are the passport, photo, the commitment to deposit 50,000 dollars at a state-owned bank and the same income. Health insurance is in neither.
No requirement means no safety net. Where Thailand prescribes a minimum cover for its retirement visa, Indonesia leaves the choice to you. That sounds like freedom, but it also means nobody checks whether your policy covers evacuation, whether you can still renew it at eighty, and whether your existing conditions are covered. Arrange the policy before you leave, and have those three points confirmed in black and white.
What do you look for in a private policy?
There are three questions you put to the insurer, and whose answers you want in writing:
- Evacuation. Does the policy cover transport to a hospital off your island or outside Indonesia, if the care you need isn't available there?
- Renewal. May the insurer cancel the policy at a certain age or after a claim, or is renewal guaranteed?
- Existing conditions. Which are excluded? Concealing them makes the policy worthless at the moment you need it.
Include the premium of later years in your pension sum, not only today's. And review the policy every year, not to switch, but to know what you have. How your pension and tax count in this sum is in AOW, pension and tax in Indonesia.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Indonesia or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- CAK — the foreign scheme, mandatory for those moving to a treaty country with a statutory pension — hetcak.nl
- CAK — the list of treaty countries for health insurance — hetcak.nl
- Ministry of Health — the national health insurance JKN, including foreigners who work at least six months — ayosehat.kemkes.go.id
- Imigrasi — the E33F retirement visa, the required documents — evisa.imigrasi.go.id
- Imigrasi — the E33E Silver Hair visa, the required documents — evisa.imigrasi.go.id
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thailand — the insurance requirement for the Thai O-A visa, for comparison — image.mfa.go.th
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