The Impact of BPJS Kesehatan on Poverty Eradication: a Regional Comparison and a Microsimulation

Abstraksi

At the beginning of 2018, BPJS Kesehatan has been established for three years. The government’s primary goal is to provide affordable healthcare which includes primary and secondary healthcare. Moreover, they expect this policy may also contribute to lowering national poverty level and the income inequality by providing healthcare, especially for the poor. Our study uses the quasi-experimental method to measure the impact of BPJS Kesehatan on covering the health expenditure in 2015 and 2016. In the big framework, this study includes two methods; stochastic and deterministic. On the stochastic approach, we use the propensity score matching (PSM) and instrumental variable regression (IV-regression) to measure the amount of health expenditure covered by BPJS Kesehatan. On the deterministic method, we use microsimulation to inspect how many people are saved from poverty by BPJS Kesehatan. The results show that BPJS Kesehatan saved more than one million lives from being poor in 2015 and 2016. Based on our analysis, BPJS Kesehatan also protected around 15 million lives from worse poverty situation in 2015 and 2016. As a supplement for the results, there are two most important variables which determine how effective BPJS Kesehatan; coverage and utilisation. If we look more profound to the regional factor, we also find different impact and coverage throughout population cohort and provinces in Indonesia. This study shows the significant role of BPJS Kesehatan as a social protection policy. If the government wish to increase or retain the effectiveness, this paper recommends the government to expand the coverage and improving the healthcare quality.