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Indonesia’s National Health Insurance (JKN) program to boost economy

Spire Research and Consulting collaborated with the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDBI) to study the direct economic impact of Indonesia’s National Health Insurance (JKN) program in 2015. The study revealed that the much talked about JKN program would add up to IDR18.62 trillion (USD1.3 billion) to Indonesia’s economy.

Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting group, was honoured to address a press conference on behalf of PDBI on 25 August  2015 in Central Jakarta. During the conference, he discussed the direct economic impact of the JKN program since its implementation in 2014.

Bahar opined that the positive impact highlights the contribution from four related sectors namely human resources, construction of hospitals, health services and medicines.

Interestingly, the study used data from various government institutions throughout 2014 which clearly demonstrated that the JKN program has raised demand for doctors and nurses by 50,000. Moreover, the health services sector also registered income growth amounting to IDR4.4 trillion.

With more patients enlisted under the JKN program rushing for treatments, the number of hospitals continues to expand. After the introduction of the JKN program, the number of new hospitals registered an approximate growth of 35% in 2014. This figure is bound to rise as the private sector establishes ownership dominance for most of the new hospitals.

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