BPJS chief executive Fahmi Idris said the new premiums would help the company repay liabilities to hospitals that it had already defaulted on and balance its financial position this year.
The insurer had carried over a total of 15.5 trillion rupiah ($1.04 billion) of missed payments from last year to this year, of which 4.8 trillion rupiah remained unpaid, Idris said in a news conference on Thursday.
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The government raised BPJS' premiums by nearly the same amount last year to avoid having to extend a large bailout to the company, but the Supreme Court annulled the move in March on the grounds that the hike did not follow a fair principle, as there was no improvement in BPJS' service quality.
News of the increase became a trending topic on Indonesian Twitter, with many users slamming the move.
"The court has cancelled the hike. The government should have just stuck with that," Ribka Tjiptaning, a member of parliament, told Reuters. "This proves the government is insensitive. People are losing their jobs, yet they ask for higher BPJS premiums."
Indonesia on Wednesday reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections with 689 cases, taking the total to 15,438, with 1,028 deaths. ($1 = 14,840.0000 rupiah) ($1 = 14,900.0000 rupiah)
