Health Minister Suggests Wealthier Citizens Pay Higher BPJS Premiums Amid Deficit

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has revealed efforts to strengthen the resilience of the health industry so it can support national economic growth. One of the Ministry of Health’s current focuses is the equitable distribution of health services across Indonesia, such as hospitals, by encouraging hospital networks to invest and open facilities in the regions, thereby driving investment and creating jobs. The ministry is targeting improvements to around 400 hospitals in regencies and cities so that health services become more evenly distributed and patients do not need to travel to large cities or go abroad. The ministry is also ensuring regulatory ease to boost the competitiveness of health sector investment. Despite this, the minister also highlighted the health sector’s problem regarding a shortage of medical personnel, noting that Indonesia lacks 70,000 specialist doctors while only 2,000 specialist doctors graduate each year. Therefore, the ministry is promoting hospital-based specialist education to accelerate the production of specialist doctors, including the potential entry of foreign doctors so that the distribution of doctors will also be more equitable. The ministry is also pushing for transformation at BPJS Kesehatan, where ideally the scheme should cover 60-80% of health spending to prevent high health inflation, whereas currently it only reaches 20%. Consequently, in an effort to strengthen BPJS Kesehatan’s finances, the ministry is advocating for improved governance of BPJS Kesehatan with a ‘gotong royong’ concept regarding premiums.