Healthcare Spending Soars to Rp640 Trillion as Patient Numbers Rise

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has stated that healthcare spending continues to rise annually, with the total value now reaching Rp640 trillion. “What is interesting about this Rp640 trillion? Its growth over the last 10 years has been between 9 and 11 percent per year. So it is high,” he said during the CNBC Indonesia Economic Update 2026 on Wednesday (24/6/2026).

According to Budi, this growth in healthcare spending is occurring because the elderly population is increasing and more people require medical services. “This is one of the sectors whose annual growth exceeds the President’s 8 percent target. So it is an attractive sector if we manage it properly,” Budi stated.

The healthcare industry is divided into three types, each contributing significantly to the growth in spending: healthcare services, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. “Each of these industries has different growth rates. Based on the data we have, the pharmaceutical industry grew around 8 percent last year, and the medical device industry grew about 12 percent. I do not yet have the final data for the services industry last year, but looking at the spending side, it grew between 9 and 11 percent,” Budi explained.

Seeing these figures, he emphasised that healthcare has been an attractive sector over the past decade. Consequently, the Ministry of Health is continuing its efforts to build national health resilience. This initiative has been ongoing even after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. In building this resilience, the Ministry of Health has devised a transformation plan that includes health security covering medicines, vaccines, and medical devices. “It contains a resilience component from the side of medicines, vaccines, medical devices, and healthcare services. So that if something happens, we are not like before, where we had no medicines, were angry, had difficulty, had to buy from China, had no vaccines, and had to import from abroad,” Budi clarified.