The Health Minister of Indonesia, Dr. Nila F Moeloek, has shared the results of a recently conducted family survey revealing that the lifestyles of 82% of Indonesian households can be considered to be unhealthy. The Ministry uses 12 indicators to determine the healthiness level of a household.
Among the indicators are the possession of health insurance, following family planning program, pregnant women giving birth in a hospital, monitoring of children’s growth and development, children being breastfed whenever possible, completion of children’s immunization, family having access to latrine and clean running water, family member contracting tuberculosis receiving treatment, family member with hypertension performing regular check-ups and family members not being smokers.
Such high level of unhealthiness contributes to the bulging deficit faced by the country’s national health insurance scheme, the BPJS Kesehatan. Data from BPJS Kesehatan shows that most of its annual expenses are spent on providing treatment for non-communicable diseases and critical illnesses.
From 2014 to 2018, the government agency spent USD 5.5 billion and 17% of its total expenses towards treating heart diseases, kidney failures and cancers. During the same period, BPJS Kesehatan has accumulated over USD 635 million in deficit. The global watchdog, The Tobacco Atlas estimates that two-thirds of Indonesians are smokers. This is equivalent to about 64 million people, with smoking habits causing the death of 226,000 Indonesians every year.
(Source: Jakarta Globe)