The role of the Japan National Health Insurance (JKN), the world's most extensive single-payer health insurance scheme, is still expanding and poses significant obstacles. According to ongoing evaluations of the JKN over several years, the majority of the population needs equitable access to quality health services.
This inconvenient reality is due in large part to the unequal distribution of medical professionals and other resources.
While JKN has certainly encouraged the growth of health services, this has been mainly in the private sector and in urban areas, while community health centres (puskesmas) and rural areas have been neglected. The stark imbalance in the allocation of labour and resources has had a significant impact on the quality of health services.
The disparity is stark when comparing Java, where there is an abundance of skilled medical professionals, with Papua, where there is a shortage of qualified medical personnel. This inequality translates into low rates of antenatal care.
A policy brief on minimizing disparities in access to health services launched by Think20 (T20), the G20's official engagement group, during Indonesia's G20 Presidency in 2022 highlighted the urgent need for countries to accelerate the digitalisation of health facilities, including Puskesmas, to improve the quality of healthcare and reach more people in remote areas.
Despite the challenges, the Ministry of Health has taken big steps to improve access to medical care in remote areas, recently partnering with Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite internet service Starlink to provide high-speed internet access to thousands of people in Puskesmas, a country of 17,000 islands across multiple time zones.
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Starlink's unique ability to provide high-speed internet service to more locations than some local internet providers offers a ray of hope for improving healthcare access in remote and isolated areas.
