TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia loses out as citizens spend billions on healthcare abroad
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
COVID-19 patients are treated in a makeshift emergency ward at a government-run hospital in Jakarta on June 29, 2021. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
I
ndonesian patients continue to have a high appetite for treatment abroad as the government struggles to provide quality medical services, costing the country billions of dollars that could be spent domestically to boost the local healthcare industry.
The government estimates that Indonesians spend between Rp 100 trillion (US$7 billion) and 150 trillion annually for medical services abroad. The number of Indonesian patients abroad grew to 600,000 in 2015 from 350,000 in 2006, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
It has increased much more since then.
Speaking at the groundbreaking event for the International Hospital Bali on Dec. 27, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo put that number at “more or less 2 million”, an estimate likely referring to the time before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Singapore and Malaysia are among the countries most visited as Indonesians believe they get better treatment there than local hospitals provide. About 80 percent of medical tourists in Malaysia come from Indonesia, according to Tourism Malaysia data.
Heart and cancer diseases are among the most common concerns for which Indonesians seek treatment abroad. Unsurprisingly, higher-income Indonesians are the most likely to pay for medical services abroad.
“We must become a host for medical tourism. For now, we do not have to aim for Americans or Europeans, but let’s think about how we can give better medical services to our residents first,” Indonesia Medical Tourism Association (AWMI) chairman Taufik Jamaan said in a statement on Dec. 21.
