Indonesia Shifts Approach As Free Health Check Program Runs for a Year

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – The "Free Health Check" (CKG) program in Indonesia has been running for one year since its launch on 10 February 2025. Having benefited 70 million people, Indonesia’s Ministry of Health is now shifting the approach of one of President Prabowo Subianto government's priority programs.

The program, known in Indonesian by its abbreviation CKG, was first implemented at community health centers, targeting individuals on their birthdays so they could check their health on that day. The services provided include blood pressure measurement, body mass index calculation, cholesterol and blood sugar testing, height and weight measurement, eye and dental examinations, blood tests, and others.

“The government wants to ensure that all people, without exception, have access to quality health services,” Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Pratikno while assessing the program in Jakarta on 13 February 2025.

The program was later expanded to schools starting August 4, 2025. As a result, schoolchildren in Indonesia can now check their health conditions at school.

After a year, Indonesia’s Ministry of Health noted that the CKG program has reached 70 million people across 10,225 community health centers. The ministry also noted that 25 million students, 49% of students across all 38 provinces, have participated in the program at their school.

Data collected from the CKG program show that some people require treatment after their health examinations. Therefore, the government has now shifted the program’s approach, ensuring that people receive immediate treatment rather than merely detecting diseases.

“What’s most important now is that the Free Health Check is not only about detection, but also treatment,” Indonesia’s Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated, while evaluating the program’s one-year implementation in Semarang, Central Java, on Tuesday, 10 February 2026.

The Community Health Center of Cilandak Subdistrict in South Jakarta demonstrates the importance of medical treatment for some individuals following health screenings. The Ministry of Health recorded that out of 81,573 participants examined throughout 2025, 13,908 people were found to have health issues requiring immediate medical treatment at the health center.

Meanwhile, more than 1,500 cases were referred to hospitals for further treatment. These figures show that nearly 19 percent of CKG screening results, approximately one in five people required immediate medical intervention.

In addition to focusing on treatment, Budi encouraged the public to undergo health checks regularly, at least once a year. As quoted from the ministry’s press release, he emphasized this especially for people with risk factors for chronic diseases.

“The free health check must be done once every year. Especially if you already have high blood pressure or high blood sugar, it must be done routinely,” he said.

In the 2026 Free Health Check program, the government is strengthening the follow-up through expanded screening for diseases with high-risk conditions. In addition to thalassemia screening, which now focuses on two-year-old toddlers and seventh-grade students, the program is also expanding screening for lung cancer and colorectal cancer, as well as adding detection of infectious skin diseases such as leprosy, scabies, and yaws.