COVID-19 Pandemic Subsides: Indonesian Ministry of Health's Spending Decreases in the First Half of 2023

The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) recorded that the realization of the Ministry of Health's (Kemenkes) spending up to the first half of 2023 reached Rp36.2 trillion, or 42.3% of the 2023 State Budget (APBN) allocation of Rp85.5 trillion.

This budget realization is lower compared to the previous period (year-on-year/yoy), which reached Rp54.7 trillion or 56.5% of the 2022 allocation.

Kemenkeu explained that this was influenced by the decrease in Covid-19 cases. Therefore, the budget for patient claim payments and incentives for health workers was also lower.

"This health spending is down 9.1% from last year because spending on Covid-19 has decreased, and we are normalizing spending in the health sector," explained Finance Minister Sri Mulyani during a working meeting (raker) with the DPR's Budget Board (Banggar), as reported by Kontan on Monday (10/7/2023).

The Kemenkes budget realization in the first half of this year was channeled to support the achievement of policy directions in the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM) through public health programs, health service programs, and the National Health Insurance (JKN).

Quoting from Kemenkeu's financial report, the realization of Kemenkeu's spending in the first half of 2023 was used for, among other things:

* Disbursement of assistance to 96.7 million JKN PBI participants.
* Provision of supplementary food from buffer stock to 50,000 chronically energy-deficient pregnant women.
* Provision of supplementary food from buffer stock to 138.9 underweight infants.

Looking at the trend over the past 5 years, the highest realization of health spending occurred in the first half of 2021, reaching Rp63.5 trillion or 75.3% of the 2021 APBN allocation.

Meanwhile, the lowest realization of Kemenkes spending occurred in 2019, amounting to Rp35 trillion or 59.5% of the APBN allocation.

(See also: 10 Ministries/Agencies with the Highest Spending Realization up to Semester I 2023)