Universal health coverage (UHC) is a Sustainable Development Goal shared by all countries and will require shared actions on the part of governments, development partners, civil society, and the private sector. The goal of UHC is that all people have access to financial risk protection and quality essential health-care services, including access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines.

USAID’s Health System Strengthening investments help create an enabling environment to promote sustained equitable access to essential, high-quality health services responsive to people’s needs without financial hardship, thereby protecting poor and underserved people from illness, death and extreme poverty. Similarly, UHC bolsters USAID investments in Health System Strengthening by mobilizing domestic resources that insulate populations from financial risk and from foregoing necessary services.

Spotlight: Indonesia

In January 2014, the Government of Indonesia launched its package for achieving universal health coverage (UHC), Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), the single-payer national health insurance program, with an ambitious goal of full population coverage by 2019. With 252 million people currently living in Indonesia, JKN would be the largest single-payer system in the world, but it is not without challenges. Supply side readiness remains a significant challenge. Skilled health professional density is 16.1 per 10,000 population, well below the lowest WHO threshold of 22.8¹. Evidence and information for decision-making is lacking. No functional and comprehensive health management information system exists – for example, only 66.6% of births are registered². Financial solvency of health and social programs have recently experienced deficits.

USAID is well-positioned as a development partner to help the government of Indonesia achieve UHC. Working with the government and other partners, USAID is identifying opportunities for domestic resource mobilization to ensure program solvency and availability of a qualified health workforce.

USAID supports Indonesia’s Ministry of Health by strengthening efficiencies and capacity of the BPJS (Social Security Management Agency for the Health Sector) in its role as a strategic purchaser of health services. USAID complements Ministry of Health work to reduce preventable maternal and child deaths by addressing financial barriers to the poorest segments of the population in accessing lifesaving services, contributing to improving equitable implementation of the JKN and social assistance, and contributing to improving health information system enterprise architecture.

1.   A Universal Truth: No Health Without a Workforce, WHO 2013
2.  WHO Global Health Observatory Database, 2012