Improving Child Access to Health Services during the Economic Crisis: An Indonesian Experience of the Safety Net Program in the Health Sector

Eunike Suci, Brown University

Child health has been a serious problem in Indonesia for the past several decades. The prolonged Indonesian economic crisis in 1997 had a tremendous impact on child health. In 1998, the Indonesian government launched a broad social safety net program. In the health sector, it took the form of the JPSBK. I examine the extent to which JPSBK contributed to better health services for poor children in four provinces: Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, and South Sulawesi. In addition to the data sets from the JPSBK study, I used the Village Potentials data set. I found that JPSBK programs met their overall targets. Over one year of the program, the number of poor children experiencing sickness decreased significantly. When they were sick, the poor likely to visit outpatient care. One crucial determinant of outpatient visits was health card possession, the means by which poor children access services for free.