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Systemic challenges impede Indonesia's universal health care ambitions
Indonesia must step up efforts to address structural and systemic issues, both in law and practice, to achieve its "ambitious" goal of establishing universal health care by 2019, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras, has said.
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A doctor checks a female patient during a free health program in the Indonesia Medika Clinic Malang, East Java, on Feb. 21. (JP/Aman Rochman)
Liza Yosephine
Indonesia must step up efforts to address structural and systemic issues, both in law and practice, to achieve its "ambitious" goal of establishing universal health care by 2019, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras, has said.
“Ambitious goals can be reached only if challenges are addressed,” Puras said at the end of a visit to Indonesia recently.
Puras was in the archipelago from March 22 until April 3 and was the first visiting UN special rapporteur on the right to health to visit the country.
He will convey a comprehensive report, along with a set recommendations, to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2018.
After having previously been a member during the establishment of the council, Indonesia currently holds membership from 2014 to 2017.
(Read also: Task force set up to combat JKN fraud)
Puras pointed to the necessity to increase investment in the healthcare sector, adding that it would only make sense if the system is "efficient, transparent, accountable and responsive to those who use it.”
Substantial investments are also needed to improve quality and quantity of the healthcare workforce, he continued, saying that skills training and geographical deployment, with innovative incentives, of doctors and other healthcare workers remains a challenge.
The UN expert commended the government's efforts to develop a health insurance system managed by the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan), which aims to provide universal health care by 2019, as a progressive move within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Indonesia, however, has been stumbling in its implementation of the government-funded health insurance, with with the National Health Insurance (JKN) program facing financial difficulties and predictions pointing to losses despite a premium hike last year. (dan)
