The basics — every policy has these.
Premium (premi)
What you pay for the policy — monthly or yearly. The number everyone compares first and the least useful one to compare alone.
Policy (polis)
The contract itself. Everything the insurer promised is in here — and only here. If the agent said it but the polis doesn’t, it doesn’t exist.
Sum insured
The maximum the insurer will ever pay out under the policy. Set it too low and you’re quietly self-insuring the difference.
Deductible
The part of the pain that stays yours. On every claim, you pay this amount first and the insurer covers the rest. Higher deductible, lower premium.
Rider
An optional add-on bolted onto the base policy — extra cover for extra premium. Useful ones exist; so do decorative ones.
Exclusion
What the policy explicitly will not pay for. The most important section of any polis and the one nobody reads until claim day.
Waiting period
The time after buying before certain cover kicks in — often 30 days for illness, up to 12 months or more for specific conditions. Buying insurance on the way to the hospital does not work.
Claim ratio
The share of premiums an insurer actually pays back out as claims. Our favorite number on this site: it tells you whether the insurer pays, not just whether it advertises.
Underwriting
The insurer sizing you up before saying yes — your health, your car, your building — and pricing the risk accordingly. It’s why quotes are personal.
Average clause (underinsurance)
If you insure a Rp 2 billion villa for Rp 1 billion, you’re treated as your own co-insurer for the other half — so even a small claim gets paid at 50%. The clause that punishes lowballing the sum insured.
Health — where the fine print gets expensive.
Cashless
Show your card at a network hospital and the insurer settles the bill directly. The good kind of boring.
Reimbursement
You pay the hospital first, then claim the money back. Fine in theory; test your cash flow against an ICU bill before relying on it.
Inpatient vs outpatient
Inpatient (rawat inap) means admitted with a bed; outpatient (rawat jalan) means clinic visits, GP consults, and tests. Cheap plans often cover only inpatient — check before assuming your dengue test is covered.
Annual limit
The most the plan pays across a whole policy year. A plan with a low annual limit is fine right up until the year it isn’t.
Coordination of benefits
The rules for holding two health policies at once — say BPJS plus private cover — so each pays its share instead of both refusing.
Pre-existing condition
Anything you already had before buying the policy. Usually excluded, sometimes covered after a waiting period — and never worth hiding on the application, because that voids the whole polis.
IPMI
International Private Medical Insurance — expat-grade health cover that works across borders, with limits big enough for evacuation and overseas treatment. Costs more; travels with you.
Medical evacuation
Getting you from a Bali clinic to a Jakarta, Singapore, or Bangkok hospital when local care isn’t enough. An air ambulance runs into the tens of thousands of dollars — this is the cover that pays for it.
Car — two products, one big difference.
All Risk (comprehensive)
Covers everything from a parking scratch to a write-off, minus the exclusions. The name oversells it — read the exclusions — but it’s the fuller of the two Indonesian car covers.
TLO (Total Loss Only)
Pays only if the car is stolen or damaged beyond roughly 75% of its value. Dents, scrapes, and cracked bumpers stay yours. Much cheaper; that’s why.
Third-party liability (TJH)
Covers damage you cause to other people and their property. The cover that matters most in traffic and the one most drivers skimp on.
Authorized workshop (bengkel resmi)
A repair shop the insurer has approved. Some policies only pay full rates at these — take your car to your cousin’s bengkel and the claim may shrink.
Property — acronyms with fire in them.
PSAKI
Polis Standar Asuransi Kebakaran Indonesia — the standard Indonesian fire policy that most property cover is built on. The baseline everything else extends.
PAR (Property All Risks)
The broader property policy: covers everything except what’s excluded, rather than only what’s listed. For most villas and businesses, the upgrade worth having.
FLEXAS
Fire, Lightning, Explosion, aircraft impact (X), And Smoke — the core perils in a standard Indonesian fire policy. Note what’s missing: earthquake and flood cost extra.
MAIPARK
Indonesia’s specialist earthquake reinsurer. Every earthquake policy in the country is priced off MAIPARK’s zone tariffs — which is why quake cover costs what it costs where you are.
Earthquake zone
Indonesia is mapped into seismic risk zones, and your premium follows the map. Bali sits in a high one — that’s geology, not the insurer being dramatic.
Flood endorsement (4.3A)
The standard clause that adds flood, windstorm, and water damage to a fire policy. Not included by default — in a country with a rainy season, check for it by number.
Business interruption / loss of rent
Pays the income you lose while a fire-damaged villa or shop is being rebuilt. The building policy rebuilds the walls; this one pays the mortgage meanwhile.
Unoccupancy clause
Leave the property empty past a set period — often 30 days — and cover shrinks or stops. Relevant if your villa sits empty between guests or seasons.
SLF
Sertifikat Laik Fungsi — the certificate saying a building is fit for use. Insurers increasingly ask for it, and a missing SLF can complicate a claim on a commercial property.
Indonesia-specific — the local operating system.
OJK
Otoritas Jasa Keuangan — Indonesia’s financial services regulator. If an insurer or broker isn’t OJK-registered, that’s not a yellow flag, it’s a red one.
BPJS Kesehatan
Indonesia’s national health insurance. Mandatory for residents including KITAS holders, genuinely cheap, and best treated as a floor — the referral system and hospital classes are why private cover exists on top.
BPJS Ketenagakerjaan
The national employment scheme: work accidents, death benefit, old-age savings, and pension. If you employ staff in Indonesia, enrolling them isn’t optional.
KITAS / KITAP
Indonesia’s limited and permanent stay permits. Your visa status decides which policies you can buy at all — many local plans need a KITAS, while tourists are limited to travel and international cover.
Pialang asuransi (broker) vs agen (agent)
A broker legally represents you and shops the whole market; an agent represents one insurer and sells its shelf. Both get commissions — but only one of them works for you.
Business — cover for things that are someone’s job.
CAR / EAR
Contractor’s All Risks and Erection All Risks — cover for construction projects and machinery installation while the work is in progress. If you’re building a villa, ask your contractor which one they carry.
Surety bond
A guarantee that a contractor will actually finish the job — if they walk, the insurer pays the project owner. Common in Indonesian construction and government tenders.
Group health
One health policy covering a whole team. Cheaper per head than individual plans, easier underwriting, and one of the more honest perks a company can offer.
Public liability
Covers injuries and damage your business causes to other people — the guest who slips by the pool, the scooter your sign falls on. For anything customer-facing in Bali, close to non-negotiable.
Now that you speak insurance...
Use it. Compare real plans with real numbers — deductibles, limits, and claim ratios included.