**5. Advantages of a single-payer NHI**

In the last 30 years, four Asian countries started innovative health reform by establishment of a single-payer NHI. Taiwan started to implement the NHI in 1995, managed by the Bureau of the National Health Insurance of the Ministry of Health, providing comprehensive health care benefits [28]. Then, the Philippines followed in 1997 by establishing PhilHealth, the NHI Corporation attached to the Ministry of Health providing inpatient care only [29]. South Korea integrated more than 300 SHI plans into the NHI Service in 2000 providing comprehensive benefits with relatively high cost-sharing [30]. Indonesia followed enacting the national social security reform including the NHI in 2004 with comprehensive health care benefits, including preventive care. However, the political battles delayed the implementation of the NHI scheme (called JKN, *Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional)* in 2014 [7]. The single-payer NHI has several advantages as follows:


### **Figure 1.**

*Illustration of the correlation between index changes in health care expenditure (% GDP) with index changes in IMR of three countries between 2011 and 2017. 2011 index = 1.*

