Health Care in Asia: Challenges and Proposals

. Introduction

Every country worldwide faces health care challenges nowadays and those in Asia, including Indonesia, are no exception. Indonesia as a developed country has also faced several issues in their health care sector. One of the major problems for Indonesia in creating an excellent health care system is their geographic condition that is imbalanced regarding healthcare access in rural areas across the archipelago, along with the lack of professional medical staff, compared to the population and the healthcare facilities and infrastructures. The government’s support will also play a big part on this health care improvement since according to Thomas Wirtz (2015) in his publication, Indonesia’s spending on health care is one of the lowest in ASEAN. Indonesia needs a significant investment or funding to expand and upgrade its poor healthcare infrastructure. This condition will give a direct impact to Indonesians who need easy access for their health right. As a result, it is possible for Indonesians to go to another country to have their illnesses treated. This is a heated topic amongst high-class people and most of them agree to go abroad for treatment on serious illnesses in neurology, cancer, and difficult surgeries.

As reported, every year wealthy Indonesian people spend more than US$1 billion for their medical expenses overseas (Asrianti, 2009). It implies a huge loss for Indonesia’s domestic health care sector. Singapore, for example, which is ranked number 6 of the 191 countries on the WHO’s list with the best health care system, got S$994 million for medical tourism receipt in 2014 (Singapore Tourism Board, 2015) and Indonesians spent S$632 million, almost 60% of total medical tourism receipt that Singapore earned in 2014. It raises a big question mark for Indonesia’s health care sector. This news is even more surprising because Singaporean hospitals demand higher prices than Indonesian hospitals. For instance, a patient has to pay for blood tests and radiology scans before they undergo an important surgery, which will consume SG$300 to SG$400 (moh.gov.sg). This price range is 3 times as much as the amount of prices they would face in Indonesian clinics and this excludes the surgery itself. Then, what makes Indonesian wealthy people travel to Singapore for medical reason? Vincent Chia, CEO Gleneagles Hospital Singapore, reveals that they have up-to-date and modern medical devices to help the efficiency and accuracy of result. They also have many specialist doctors, who regularly enhance their medical knowledge in many reputable countries and institutions to be even more reliable of taking care of their patients (Desideria, 2015). Another perspective from Mochtar Riady (Lippo Group founder), he claims that Indonesia needs more high-class hospitals with excellent services and facilities. He believes that many of Indonesia’s