Jakarta. The Finance Ministry is planning to earmark up to Rp 200.8 trillion ($13.4 billion) for the 2024 healthcare budget, as the government gets increasingly concerned about Indonesia’s stunting prevalence and high tuberculosis incidence. 

The Finance Ministry is allocating Rp 178.7 trillion for healthcare in 2023. It is the first time in years that the government no longer sets aside a specific amount for Covid-19. And in 2024, the ministry plans to become more generous with its healthcare spending.

“We will keep our 2024 healthcare budget between Rp 187.4 trillion and Rp 200.8 trillion. This is higher than our healthcare spending in 2022 or 2023, but still less than what we spent in the pandemic-ridden 2021,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said at a conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

Data showed the government spent Rp 172.3 trillion on healthcare in 2020. Healthcare spending skyrocketed to Rp 312.4 trillion due to Covid-19 treatments in 2021 and later dropped to Rp 176.7 trillion the following year as the pandemic subsided. 

Indonesia has set a goal to become an advanced economy by its centennial in 2045. But a 21.6-percent stunting prevalence, coupled with tuberculosis and leprosy cases that are among the highest in the world, can get in the way of that dream. 

“We need to boost our spending for human capital development, including healthcare, if we wish to have the envisioned economic transformation in 2045,” Sri said.

“It is not just stunting. There are also tuberculosis, malaria, and leprosy,” Sri said.

According to Sri, Indonesia and India are racing to become the top performer among G20 countries.

"At the same time, we are both the two worst countries in tuberculosis incidence,” she said.

The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) reported that Indonesia recorded 969,000 new tuberculosis cases per year, ranking second globally. New infections of leprosy  — a chronic infectious disease that may lead to disfiguring skin sores — amount to 12,095 cases per year or the third-largest worldwide. Malaria infections in Indonesia total 415,140 cases per year.

Indonesia aims to lower its stunting prevalence from 21.6 percent in 2022 to 14 percent in 2024. The Southeast Asian country plans on lowering its tuberculosis incidence from 354 cases (2022) to 297 cases per 100,000 people next year. Also by 2024, 405 regencies and cities are expected to be malaria-free. Indonesia hopes to get rid of leprosy from all of its regencies and cities in 2024. 

Indonesia has a total of 514 regencies and cities across its archipelago.