The Discursive Construction Of Contribution Assistance Beneficiaries (BPJS PBI) Deactivation In Kompas.Com

Abstract

Indonesia's National Health Insurance (Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional [JKN]), administered by BPJS Kesehatan, is one of the world's largest single-payer health insurance systems. The deactivation of Contribution Assistance Beneficiaries (Penerima Bantuan Iuran [PBI]) in early 2026 attracted widespread public attention and extensive media coverage. This study aims to examine how the deactivation of BPJS PBI membership was discursively constructed in Kompas.com. Employing Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study analyzed four Kompas.com news articles published in February 2026, focusing on the representation of social actors, lexical choices, and headline construction. The analysis followed Fairclough's three-dimensional framework, encompassing textual analysis, discourse practice, and sociocultural practice. Based on textual analysis and discursive practices, the research findings reveal two dominant discourses. First, Kompas.com constructs the government as a responsible actor focused on resolving societal issues through data- or regulation-based actions. Second, the citizens are represented as a vulnerable group that complies with government policies. At the sociocultural level, the study identifies an asymmetrical power relationship in which governmental authority over healthcare access is legitimized through media discourse. The study concludes that Kompas.com not only reports the BPJS PBI deactivation policy but also reproduces discourses that reinforce governmental legitimacy while shaping public perceptions of healthcare policy. The findings of this study contribute to the body of critical discourse analysis on media representations of government health policies in Indonesia. Given that this study is limited to four articles from a single media outlet, future research could compare the discourse across different media outlets and incorporate readers’ perceptions to further substantiate and strengthen the existing findings.