Semeru Research Report,

Crises can raise public awareness of a problem by changing perceptions around reforms or can shift the position of key stakeholders, but as theory tells us, the precise policies and politics will ultimately need to come together to move reform forward.

Health-related crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia has gone through a multitude of crises, especially in the economic sector. There is a need to understand the influence of these crises on the political and economic dynamics that facilitated changes in the health system and the various strategies pursued to move forward reforms. Impact of the crisis to the health system reform is particularly relevant in the South-East Asia Region, where some countries have made good progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), but many countries’ health financing systems still fail to ensure adequate financial protection to large shares of their populations (World Health Organization, 2023b). In conducting such an analysis, lessons can be garnered for this current moment, with the objective of building stronger and more resilient health systems well into the future.