Bangladesh has one of the best health networks in the public sector. However, shortage and skill-mix imbalance of human resources, limitations in equipment, medicines and other supplies deter obtaining adequate benefits from these resources.
Public expenditure on health in Bangladesh stands at 0.47 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) – not only one of the lowest in the world but also low when compared to the average of the lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), which is 2.8 percent, or the average in the South Asian region, which is 2.1 percent.
This is evident from the high out-of-pocket (OOP) spending by households on health (72 percent), which is one of the highest in the world.
Government’s Health Care Financing Strategy 2012-2032 identified three challenges: (i) inadequate health financing; (ii) inequity in health financing and utilisation; and (iii) inefficient use of existing resources.
Read the full article originally publshed in The Daily Star here.
Image credits: Unsplash/ Li Lin
