“The shift to the Health Master Plan as a performance-based financing requires the ability to design health activities and development focusing on results, not inputs,” expert staff to the Health Minister, Laksono Trisnantoro, said during the “Health Law Discussion” in Jakarta on Friday.
He informed that the government has changed the direction of the health budget from mandatory to performance-based spending. The policy requires central and local governments to design activities and development by focusing on results.
According to Trisnantoro, the latest Health Law provides the legal basis for implementing the Health Master Plan, in line with Article 409, which states that the central government will allocate the health budget from the state budget in accordance with the needs of the national program, as outlined in the master plan, based on performance-based budgeting.
Further, Point 4 of Article 409 of the Health Law states that the regional government will allocate the health budget from the regional budget in accordance with regional health needs by referring to the national health program, as outlined in the master plan by considering performance-based budgeting.
Trisnantoro said there is a possibility that the regional Health Master Plan will be in between the Regional Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMD) and the Strategic Plan, which provide good managerial challenges.
“The central government is preparing a Health Master Plan to produce innovations that require help from IAKMI,” he added.
IAKMI is an organization comprising public health experts, ranging from epidemiologists, health economists, and planning experts.
Trisnantoro said a number of challenges were faced in preparing the Health Master Plan, including ensuring the speed of the health budget flow, which had been one of the causes of the inadequate budget realization.
“Delays in the budget disbursement often hamper activities on the field with inadequate results,” he disclosed.
Earlier, the government changed the direction of the health budget from mandatory to performance-based spending through the Health Master Plan, which was approved by the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), under the Health Law.
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