Launched in 2014 and aiming to provide universal healthcare coverage, Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme, JKN, has gradually increased its membership to 220 million people, or 84 per cent of the Indonesian population. Nevertheless, questions remain about the equality of access to healthcare and quality of treatment that JKN members receive in different parts of the country. The financial sustainability of the scheme also remains an ongoing issue, with the healthcare fund’s deficit reaching Rp 28 trillion rupiah (approximately A$2.5 billion ) in 2019, a significant burden for the government even prior to the severe economin downturn caused by Covid-19.

In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme, with Professor Laksono Trisnantoro, Head of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing at Universitas Gadjah Mada . Professor Laksono headed a team from the Centre of Health Policy and Management that produced a recently published evaluation of the national health insurance scheme in 13 of Indonesia’s 34 provinces . Professor Laksono is a second time guest on Talking Indonesia, having appeared in 2016 to discuss the earlier development of JKN.

Today’s episode is the latest in the “Policy in Focus” series of Talking Indonesia episodes, supported by the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI), a partnership between the Australian and Indonesian governments that aims to improve the use of evidence in development policymaking. This series will appear periodically in alternate weeks to the regular Talking Indonesia episodes. The views expressed in this podcast episode do not represent the views of the Australian or Indonesian governments.

The Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Associate Professor Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University.

Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight.

Photo credit: Ampelsa for Antara Foto