Health system reform is often discussed in theory. This week, our students had the opportunity to learn from a country that has spent more than a decade implementing it at scale.
The Global Health Symposium, jointly organised by the Centre for Population Health (CePH) and APACPH Kuala Lumpur, brought together colleagues from the University of Indonesia and Universiti Malaya to explore how health systems can be strengthened through financing reforms, advanced analytics, and the use of real-world data.
We were privileged to learn from three excellent presentations:
📍 Health System Transformation and the Role of Health Insurance in Indonesia – Professor Dr Ede Surya Darmawan
📍 Using Small Area Estimation (SAE) in Predicting Health Indicator Performance – Dr Ita Wulandari
📍 Leveraging Health Facility and Health Insurance Data for Policy Analysis – Syarif Rahman Hasibuan
The session on Indonesia’s national health insurance programme (JKN) particularly captured the attention of our students. Malaysia has much to learn from Indonesia’s 12-year journey towards Universal Health Coverage, which now covers approximately 98% of the population. The Q&A session became one of the highlights of the symposium, lasting nearly 45 minutes and generating thoughtful discussion on centralisation versus decentralisation, the role of the private sector, financing sustainability, and how Indonesia has successfully extended coverage to informal workers, the poor, and the unemployed.
Equally fascinating were the discussions on how routinely collected health facility and insurance data, as well as Small Area Estimation techniques, can be used to generate local-level insights and support evidence-based policymaking.
What stood out most was the openness with which the speakers shared both successes and challenges. Health system transformation is never straightforward, but there is tremendous value in learning from the experiences of our regional neighbours.
Thank you to Professor Dr Ede Surya Darmawan, Dr Ita Wulandari, and Syarif Rahman Hasibuan for sharing your expertise. Thank you also to our students and participants whose enthusiasm and questions made for a vibrant discussion.
Finally, my appreciation to the organising teams from CePH and APACPH Kuala Lumpur for creating this valuable platform for regional learning and exchange.
This write-up was prepared by Associate Professor Dr Tharani Loganathan from the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya.
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