Health insurance for foreigners living in Bali: BPJS and private cover

This page is for a foreigner who lives in Bali, or plans to, and wants to know what Indonesian law says about national health insurance and about private health cover. It sets out the texts with the article and says where we found them silent. It is general information, not legal advice.

There are two separate things. The national scheme, JKN (Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional), is run by one public body, BPJS Kesehatan, under the social security law (UU 40/2004), the law on the social security bodies (UU 24/2011) and the Presidential Regulation on health insurance (Perpres 82/2018, changed in 2019, 2020 and 2024). Private cover is ordinary insurance, sold by licensed companies and supervised by the financial services authority, OJK, under the insurance law (UU 40/2014). A member of the national scheme may add private cover (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 51).

Not covered here: which insurer, plan or hospital to choose, the price of any private plan, travel insurance for a trip, medical evacuation, and the treatment itself. The page names no company.

Where the page says that no text says something, that is a statement about the texts we read, listed in the sources of each section. It is not a statement about how an office applies the law, which can differ. The section "What we could not confirm" lists the open points.

The social security laws define a member as every person, including a foreigner who works in Indonesia for at least six months (paling singkat 6 bulan), who has paid contributions (UU 40/2004 Pasal 1 angka 8; UU 24/2011 Pasal 1 angka 4). UU 24/2011 then says that every such person must become a member of the social security programmes (Pasal 14). The health insurance regulation repeats the definition in the wording of Perpres 59/2024 (Pasal 1 angka 2) and adds that every resident of Indonesia must take part in the health programme, by registering or being registered with BPJS Kesehatan (Pasal 6(1) and (2)).

Employees. An employer must register itself and its workers with BPJS Kesehatan and pay the contribution (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 13(1)). If the employer in fact does not, the worker has the right to register himself with a document that proves his employment (Pasal 13(2) and (3)). Until the employer registers him and pays, the employer answers for the cost of his care (Pasal 13(5) and 42(2)). For a foreign worker the BPJS rule asks the employer for the passport, the stay permit card (KITAP or KITAS), the limited stay visa number or the work permit (Peraturan BPJS Kesehatan 6/2018 Pasal 13).

How long counts. The definitions say "at least six months". The foreign worker regulation says "more than six months" for the national social security programme, and for a worker employed for less than six months it requires an insurance programme with an insurance company that covers at least the risk of a work accident (PP 34/2021 Pasal 8(1) and (2)). The texts do not say what happens at exactly six months, or how a one-year permit and a five-month contract are counted. Ask the employer, and ask BPJS.

A person who must register and does not is liable to administrative sanctions: a written warning, a fine and being refused certain public services (UU 24/2011 Pasal 17(1) and (2); for employers, Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 13(6)). For a person who is neither employer, worker nor aided member, PP 86/2013 sets the way the refusal works: the public service office asks for proof of membership, and the refusal ends once the person has registered and shows the membership card or the registration receipt with proof that the contribution was paid (Pasal 8(3), 9(2) and 11). Which services are meant is in the section "BPJS as a condition of public services".

Retirees, owners of a second home and holders of a family permit are the people this question comes from. The membership definition and the duty in UU 24/2011 Pasal 14 name only a foreigner who works for at least six months. Neither mentions a foreigner who does not work.

Other texts point in different directions, and none settles it. (1) Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 6(1) puts the duty on every resident of Indonesia (setiap penduduk Indonesia), and the population law defines "penduduk" as Indonesian citizens and foreigners who live (bertempat tinggal) in Indonesia (UU 23/2006 Pasal 1 angka 2, in the wording of UU 24/2013). (2) The Perpres lists, among the non-workers who register themselves (BP), investors, pension recipients and "others able to pay", without naming nationality (Pasal 4(4)). (3) The BPJS page on registering as a self-paying member lists, for a foreigner, a passport and a work permit (page read on 6 October 2026), which a retiree or a second-home holder does not have.

We found no text that says in terms that such a foreigner may join, must join or may not join, or that says which category he falls in. We did not find a stay permit that BPJS names for this case. Ask BPJS Kesehatan (Care Center 165), say which stay permit you hold, and keep the answer in writing.

For a member who is an employee, the family covered by the member's contribution are the lawful spouse and the children, at most four people in all: own children, stepchildren of a lawful marriage and lawfully adopted children, who are unmarried or without income of their own and under 21, or under 25 if still in formal education (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 5(1) and (2)). With a spouse that leaves three children. The member may add other relatives: the fourth child and later children, the father, the mother and the parents-in-law (Pasal 5(3) and (4)). Each of them costs 1% of the member's wage per month, paid by the member (Pasal 36(1) and (2)).

A married couple who both work are each registered by their own employer (Pasal 14(1)). A self-paying member registers himself and his family (Pasal 15(1)), and the contribution is counted per person (Pasal 34 as amended; see the next section).

A newborn child of a member must be registered with BPJS Kesehatan within 28 days of birth, and the contribution for the baby is paid within the same 28 days (Pasal 16(1) and 36A). We did not read what proof of marriage or of a child's birth BPJS accepts from a foreign family, in particular for a marriage or a birth registered abroad.

A self-paying member pays by the 10th of each month and may pay several months ahead (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 40(1) and (2)). BPJS must verify a new registration within 14 days, and the first payment may be made once the verification is done (Pasal 15(2) and (3)); the BPJS page says the first payment may be made from 14 days to 30 days after registering.

If the contribution is not paid by the end of the month, cover is suspended from the first day of the next month (Pasal 42(1)). It becomes active again when the member has paid the months in arrears, up to 24 months, and the contribution of the month in which he wants cover to resume (Pasal 42(3)). A member who then has advanced inpatient care within 45 days of reactivation pays a fine for one stay: 5% of the estimated hospital package cost for each month in arrears, for at most 12 months and at most Rp20,000,000 (Pasal 42(5) and (6), in the wording of Perpres 59/2024). The BPJS page on contributions still states a maximum of Rp30,000,000, the figure of Perpres 64/2020, which Perpres 59/2024 replaced. For an employee the employer bears the arrears and the fine (Pasal 42(7)).

Perpres 59/2024 replaced the idea of class I, II and III wards with one Standard Inpatient Ward Class (KRIS), with minimum room standards (Pasal 46 and 46A). Hospitals that work with BPJS had to apply it by 30 June 2025, and benefits, tariffs and contributions under KRIS were to be fixed by 1 July 2025 (Pasal 103B(1) and (8)). We found no official text that sets new contributions, and the BPJS page we read on 6 October 2026 still lists the amounts of 2020 by the former classes. Check the amount with BPJS before you pay.

Only an Indonesian citizen who lives abroad for at least six months in a row may suspend his membership for that time (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 37(1)). We found no text that lets a foreign member suspend membership while abroad.

Through an employer. The employer fills in the data of the foreign worker, including the passport, the stay permit card or limited stay visa number and the work permit, and chooses with the worker the first-level clinic (Peraturan BPJS Kesehatan 6/2018 Pasal 13). Ask the employer for the membership number and the date of registration.

On your own. The BPJS page for self-paying members says that registration is done on a registration form, and that an individual shows a KTP or family card, the savings book of a bank that works with BPJS on automatic debit (the BPJS page names five banks) and, for a foreigner, the passport and a work permit issued by the competent agency. The BPJS rule lists, for a foreigner, a copy of the passport, KITAP, KITAS, limited stay visa number or work permit, and the number of a funding account at a bank or financial technology provider that works with BPJS (Peraturan BPJS Kesehatan 6/2018 Pasal 20). BPJS Care Center 165 handles registration by telephone (BPJS home page, read on 6 October 2026).

At registration you choose the first-level clinic where you are registered (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 6A(1)). You can change it after three months, or earlier if you move house and show a domicile letter (Pasal 7(1) and (2)). The member receives an identity that is a Kartu Indonesia Sehat linked to the population identity number (Pasal 8(2)); the Regulation does not say how that number is made for a foreigner. A self-paying member must report a change of data to BPJS, and a member who changes employer must report the new employer (Pasal 23 and 24). BPJS offers a status check on its page "Cek Keaktifan Peserta".

What is covered. The medical benefit is individual health care, promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative, including medicines, medical devices and consumables as the medical need requires (Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 46(1) and (2) as amended). First-level care covers non-specialist examination, treatment and consultation, non-specialist procedures, medicines, basic diagnostics and first-level inpatient care. Advanced referral care covers specialist consultation and procedures, including surgery, medicines, advanced diagnostics, medical rehabilitation, blood services, family planning and inpatient care, intensive care included. Land or water ambulance covers the transfer of a referred patient between facilities (Pasal 47(1) and (5)). The non-medical benefit is the inpatient room, to the KRIS standard (Pasal 46(6) and (7), 46A).

Referral. Care is given in steps. It starts at the first-level facility where you are registered (a clinic, a public health centre or a doctor), except in a medical emergency. Away from that area you may use another first-level facility for at most three visits in one month. The first-level facility refers you to a hospital according to the case, and referred care lasts at most three months before you return to the first-level facility, with exceptions (Pasal 55(1) to (7)). A referral at your own request is not covered (Pasal 52(2)).

Emergencies. A patient who needs emergency care may go directly to any facility, whether or not it works with BPJS; the criteria include a threat to life, a problem with airway, breathing or circulation, loss of consciousness, and a need for immediate action, and the doctor in charge decides (Pasal 63(1) to (4)). If the facility does not work with BPJS, the patient is moved to one that does once the emergency is over and he can be moved (Pasal 63(5)). Care at a facility that does not work with BPJS is otherwise not covered (Pasal 52(1)(b)).

What is not covered includes: care abroad; aesthetic care; infertility treatment; orthodontics; harm from dependence on drugs or alcohol; harm from deliberate self-injury or from hobbies that endanger oneself, as the Minister of Health defines them; complementary and alternative treatment not yet found effective; experimental treatment; contraceptive devices and cosmetics; and care that the compulsory traffic accident insurance covers, up to its value (Pasal 52(1) as amended). A member may go above his entitlement, for example to a higher room or an executive outpatient clinic, by taking supplementary insurance or paying the difference (Pasal 51(1) and (2) as amended).

We found no current rule that makes health insurance, national or private, a condition of a visa or a stay permit. We read the ministerial regulation on visas and stay permits (Permenkumham 22/2023 as amended by 11/2024), the ministerial regulations of 2025 on immigration and the official visa pages of the immigration directorate, among them the pages for the investor visa and the second home visas, including the one for people of 55 and over. None asks for proof of health insurance.

One older text did ask for it. In PP 31/2013 as enacted, the application for a limited stay permit by a senior foreign tourist (aged 55 or more) had to include a health, death and third-party civil liability insurance policy valid in Indonesia (Pasal 142(2)(i) point 4 and its elucidation); no amount was stated. PP 40/2023 replaced Pasal 142, whose documents are now the passport, the guarantee and other documents that a ministerial regulation names, and deleted Pasal 143.

For a worker the duty is the employer's: it must enrol the foreign worker in the national programme, or in an insurance programme if the work is shorter than six months, and an employer that does not can have the processing of its foreign worker plan application stopped (PP 34/2021 Pasal 8(1), 39(1)(b)).

In January 2022 the President instructed the Minister of Law and Human Rights to take the steps needed so that applicants for immigration services are active JKN members, and the Minister of Manpower to ensure that every foreigner who works at least six months is an active member (Inpres 1/2022, dictum Kedua, items 6(a) and 10(c)). An Inpres is an instruction to officials, not a regulation that binds an applicant. On 1 March 2022 the immigration directorate wrote on its website that membership was not yet a condition for a passport, which is a different service. We found no immigration rule that applies the instruction to a visa or a stay permit. Practice at an office can differ: ask which rule is meant, in writing.

The law lets the state refuse some services to a person who must register with BPJS and has not. For a person who is neither employer, worker nor aided member, PP 86/2013 lists the services: a building permit (IMB), a driving licence (SIM), a land certificate, a passport and a vehicle registration certificate (STNK) (Pasal 9(2)). The refusal is carried out by the public service unit and ends once the person has registered and shows the card or the registration receipt with proof of payment (Pasal 9(3) and 11). The regulation applies to a person who "meets the requirements of membership", so for a foreigner who does not work the question in the section "A foreigner who does not work" comes first.

Perpres 82/2018, in the wording of 2024, tells regional governments to support membership by issuing regulations that require JKN membership in order to obtain public services (Pasal 99(3)). In Inpres 1/2022 the President told the Minister of Home Affairs to encourage governors and regents or mayors to require applicants for business licences and public services to be active members; the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR/BPN), that applicants for registration of the transfer of land rights by sale and purchase be active members; and the Chief of Police, that applicants for a SIM, a STNK and a police clearance certificate be active members (dictum Kedua, items 3(c), 17 and 25(a)). These are instructions to officials.

The land office follows a circular of the ministry, 5/SE-400.HK.02/II/2022, on JKN membership in applications to register a transfer of land rights or of apartment ownership by sale and purchase. The ministry's legal database lists its title but gives the text only on request, so we have not read it. A statement of the Presidential Staff Office of 23 February 2022 says that the requirement applies only to the buyer, only to sale and purchase, and that an application without proof is processed with a note, the proof being required when the document is collected. We could not confirm that the circular is applied today, or how it is applied to a foreign buyer of a Hak Pakai, an apartment unit or a lease; ask your notary or land deed official (PPAT) before the day of signing.

For a driving licence the Police regulation asks for proof of active JKN membership (Perpol 5/2021 as amended by Perpol 2/2023): the page on driving and vehicles sets out the requirement and what it does not say about a foreigner.

OJK describes insurance as an agreement between an insurance company and a policyholder, under which the company, in return for an insurance payment (premi), compensates for loss, damage, costs or legal liability to a third party caused by an uncertain event, or pays on the death or survival of the insured. It lists general insurers, life insurers, reinsurers and, as supporting businesses, insurance brokers and loss assessors. The insurance law counts the health of a person among the things that can be insured (UU 40/2014 Pasal 1 angka 25).

Licence. Anyone who runs an insurance business must first hold a business licence from OJK (Pasal 8(1)). An object of insurance in Indonesia may be insured only with an insurer licensed by OJK, unless no insurer in Indonesia can carry the risk or is willing to cover it (Pasal 25). How Pasal 25 applies to a health plan that a person living in Bali takes out with a foreign insurer abroad, the texts we read do not say. OJK publishes a directory of insurers as quarterly lists; when we opened the page on 6 October 2026 the newest edition was for the third quarter of 2025. A licence tells you that the company may sell; it does not tell you what a policy covers. The OJK alert list is not a list of licensed businesses (see the page on checking a developer).

Agents and brokers. Insurance brokers and agents must be registered with OJK, must have enough knowledge and a good reputation, and must give true, not misleading information on risks, benefits, obligations and costs (UU 40/2014 Pasal 27 as amended by UU 4/2023). Their acts are the responsibility of their company. When you pay through a partner that works with the insurer, and their agreement allows it, cover binds from the day the partner receives your payment, and the insurer must pay a claim even if the partner has not passed the payment on (Pasal 28(3) and (7) as amended).

Information. An insurer must give clear, accurate, honest information that is not misleading; documents about a product must be in plain Indonesian and may be supplemented with a foreign language (POJK 22/2023 Pasal 29(1), (2), (5) and (6)). It must provide a product summary that states at least the name and type of the product, the issuer, the main features, the benefits, the risks, the requirements and procedures and the fees (Pasal 30(1)). Ask for the summary and for the full policy wording before you pay. The law leaves the content of a health policy to the contract and to OJK rules, which we did not read in full (UU 40/2014 Pasal 26 lists the policy and the settlement of claims among the conduct standards).

BPJS Kesehatan. Care Center 165 takes questions, administration requests and complaints every day, 24 hours a day, by telephone and through the official accounts of BPJS Kesehatan on social media. The BPJS home page also links a system for information and complaints (SIPP) and lists a channel called Pandawa (page read on 6 October 2026). A complaint about maladministration by a public office can also go to the Ombudsman, which the page on disputes and complaints describes; we did not check whether a given BPJS matter falls within it. An employer that does not register you: Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 13(2) gives you the right to register yourself.

A private insurer. Complain first to the insurer. It must offer a complaint service, and must follow up and settle an oral complaint within 5 working days, and a written complaint within 10 working days after it has all the documents, with one extension of at most 10 working days in listed cases (POJK 22/2023 Pasal 74 and 75). If you do not agree with the result, you may complain to OJK, or take the dispute to the financial sector alternative dispute settlement body (LAPS SJK) approved by OJK, or to a court (Pasal 82). OJK takes questions, reports and complaints on 157 and through its consumer protection portal. The insurance law also obliges an insurer to belong to a mediation body for disputes with policyholders (UU 40/2014 Pasal 54(1)).

A hospital or a doctor: the choice of doctors and hospitals, and complaints about treatment, are outside this page.

Whether a foreigner who does not work (retirement, second home, family permit) must, may or may not join BPJS Kesehatan, in which category, and with which papers. No text we read says; the BPJS page lists a passport and a work permit.

The amounts of the contribution after the move to KRIS. Perpres 59/2024 said they would be fixed by 1 July 2025; we found no official text that does so, and the BPJS page still lists the amounts of 2020 by the former classes, with a maximum fine (Rp30,000,000) that differs from Perpres 59/2024 (Rp20,000,000).

Whether the instruction of Inpres 1/2022 is applied today to a visa, a stay permit, a SIM, a STNK or a land transfer, and how to a foreigner. The circular of the land ministry (5/SE-400.HK.02/II/2022) is available only on request; we read its title and a statement of the Presidential Staff Office, not the circular.

Whether the refusal of services in PP 86/2013 is applied to a foreigner who does not work, and whether it has been applied to a passport, a certificate or a SIM of a foreigner.

Who is an "investor" in Perpres 82/2018 Pasal 4(4), and what proof of marriage or of a child's birth BPJS accepts from a foreign family.

How a foreigner's membership number is linked to the population identity number, and whether a foreign member can suspend membership while abroad (Pasal 37 speaks only of Indonesian citizens).

How UU 40/2014 Pasal 25 applies to a health plan taken out with a foreign insurer abroad by a person who lives in Bali.

Rules of the Bali provincial or district governments that require JKN membership for a local service. We did not search them systematically; the provincial scheme JKN-KBS (Pergub Bali 104/2018) is a contribution scheme for residents, and we did not read it.

Whether Peraturan BPJS Kesehatan 6/2018 as amended is the current administration rule: we found no newer text that replaces it, but the search was not exhaustive. We opened the OJK directory page but not its PDF lists, so the page names no insurer.

To your employer: Is my registration with BPJS Kesehatan done? What is my membership number and the date? Who pays the 4% and the 1%, and does my family fall under it?

To BPJS Kesehatan (Care Center 165): Which category applies to my stay permit? Which documents do I show? When may I make the first payment, and through which bank? Please confirm the answer in writing.

To an office that asks for proof of membership (immigration, the police licensing unit, the land office): Which rule requires it, and does it apply to a foreigner with my permit? Please give the rule in writing.

To an insurer or a broker: Is the company licensed by OJK and is the agent or broker registered? May I have the product summary and the full policy wording before I pay? What does the policy exclude, what are the waiting periods and the limits, and how are existing conditions treated? Does the cover continue if my stay permit changes or I leave Indonesia? Who pays a claim, and how do I complain? These points are not set by law: the law leaves them to the contract.

Keep the card, every receipt and every written answer. They are the proof you will be asked for.