[Comment] Indonesia's health reform: from pandemic mandate to the six pillars of transformation

AI Summary

Indonesia’s COVID-19 crisis exposed health-system inequities and inefficiencies, prompting a broad reform agenda. The article describes the former health minister’s mandate to manage the pandemic while advancing a major transformation of the country’s health system.

In Indonesia, a large, diverse, middle-income country, the COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on the health system, exposing health inequities and inefficiency, and underscoring the urgency for structural reform. When I was appointed as Minister of Health at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in December, 2020, my mandate was two-fold: to manage the immediate crisis and to deliver the most ambitious health reform in Indonesia's history.