ABSTRACT
Riyana Miranti writes, in “Poverty, inequality and public health in Indonesia,” that the rate of poverty reduction is slowing, while inequality has been increasing since 2000. Miranti focuses on the human development perspective of Indonesia’s development story, taking into account the potential implications in the area of health. Dr. Miranti investigates the relationship between three economic variables: inequality, poverty and income level, and public health indicators during the development period in Indonesia. The focus on health has become very important in this nation, given the implementation of the Universal Health Insurance Scheme, starting in early 2014 and Indonesia’s support toward the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to foster welfare and well-being for the next 15 years. In this chapter, Miranti analyzes the association between income, poverty, inequality and health in recent years prior to the implementation of the Universal Health Insurance Scheme, asking whether being wealthier is always associated with being healthier and whether the associations with poverty and inequality are different among various health indicators.
