President of IndonesiaJoko Widodo appointed Terawan as the Minister of Health on 23 October 2019. Before his appointment, President Joko Widodo promoted Terawan to the rank of Lieutenant General.
National Healthcare Insurance
During his appointment, he promises to have the solution on deficit of Indonesia's single-payer government healthcare program BPJS Kesehatan, earning more controversy as he seemingly failed to address the issue as the government is forced to increase the premium for the healthcare. Later on, he state that he has no solution for the program.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked to evacuate 188 Indonesians trapped in the Dream World cruise ship. However, he gained controversy for quarantining Indonesians returning from Wuhan too close to residential areas, despite assurance from Indonesian government that the returning Indonesians were not infected. After a mandatory 14-days period of quarantine, all Indonesians quarantined were declared infection-free. Terawan has also been criticized for stating that flu is more dangerous than COVID-19, stating that flu has a higher mortality rate than COVID-19. Terawan is also under fire for his "anti-science" and "arrogant" attitude in leading the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia. He has the reputation to be bad in responding critics and input from the public. One of the cases is when he challenged a study done by Harvard University. Marc Lipsitch, epidemiologist from Harvard University, and three of his colleagues conducted research to determine locations around the world that could have undetected cases of the virus imported from abroad. Terawan comments on the study, "In my opinion, the suspicion is too far-fetched. Let Harvard to come here. The door is open for them to see. There is nothing we keep secret."
Controversy
Prior to his appointment as minister of health. Terawan was known for his “brain-cleaning” treatment or intra-arterial cerebral flushing, a combination of digital subtraction angiography and heparin injection for stroke patients. He claimed his method was effective treatment for stroke patients, which led to Indonesian Medical Association issued a recommendation to suspend him for a year over a violation of three articles of the Indonesian Doctors Ethics Code. Around October 2019, Terawan was named as one of the candidates to be the next Minister of Health. IDI then wrote to Jokowi, suggesting that he should not be appointed as Minister. However, Jokowi said that Terawan had met all criteria required to be a minister of health, and referred to his previous experience in managing budgets and human resources, including during his service as the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital director.
