Group items tagged

Indonesia's social insurance reform is the critical goal being universal health coverage for all by the year 2019. It has come into form with a single-payer umbrella program in 2014. Jamkesmas is the Government-financed health insurance program for the poor and near-poor. It has been combined and unified with other social insurance programs. Educating from Jamkesmas may start a better groundwork and application of universal health coverage for Indonesia by 2019. Axis Capital, a global insurer and reinsurer, providing clients and distribution partners with a broad range of specialized risk transfer products and services, a group of companies with branch offices in Bermuda, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Singapore and the United States is at one with the universal healthcare for Indonesia. What successes can Jamkesmas claim? * About 47 percent of poor and near-poor households were covered under the program. * Outpatient and inpatient utilization rates increased among program cardholders. * Levels of catastrophic payments declined. * Participation of private providers increased. * More than 300 complementary local Jamkesmas-inspired programs were initiated across the country. Yet considerable challenges remain, including the following: * Nearly 60 percent of the populations remain without any coverage, including millions of Indonesians working in the informal sector. * Out-of pocket spending remains high even among those with coverage. * Lack of equitable access to quality health services in rural, remote areas. * Evidence of considerable mistargeting and leakages to non-poor families. * Low levels of awareness of benefits. * Low utilization of health services. * Regional inconsistencies in the availability of the basic benefits package, and poor accountability and feedback mechanisms. Key Lessons Learned from Jamkesmas to Achieve Universal Health Care in Indonesia * Improve target

The $11 billion merger of Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. and Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. accelerates the trend of offshore reinsurers combining to remain competitive. The stock-swap deal announced Jan. 25 is the third in as many months in a sector hit by pricing pressure from an ongoing influx of private equity capital and strong competition among traditional reinsurers. The combination will create the fifth-largest reinsurer in the world. PartnerRe shareholders will own 51.6% of the combined company, for which a name has not yet been chosen, and Axis shareholders will own 48.4%. This mega-deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. The transaction follows Dublin-based XL Group P.L.C.'s Jan. 9 proposed acquisition of Bermuda-based Catlin Group Ltd. in a $4.1 billion deal and Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.'s Nov. 24, 2014, acquisition of Bermuda-based Platinum underwriters Holdings Ltd. in a $1.9 billion deal. "I think it is absolutely a trend and I think, ultimately, it's all driven by the same factors," said Cliff Gallant, San Francisco-based analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. "There is a lot of pressure in reinsurance; prices are coming down and the product is changing. I expect that the wave is building and that we'll definitely see more M&A activity." Meyer Shields, managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in Baltimore, said: "This is a trend, it is accelerating and I don't think we're anywhere near done with this sort of announcement." "After a relative calm of several years, it seems the floodgates have opened for consolidation in Bermuda," Amit Kumar, New York-based vice president and senior analyst of insurance at Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., wrote in an analyst note that also cited the RenRe/Platinum and XL/Catlin deals. Axis Capital CEO Albert Benchimol, who will head the combined entity, said in an interview: "I feel very confident that with the increased scale of the organ