Health sector needs more public funding
State Minister for Health Zahid Maleque yesterday said a significant public funding in the health sector and its equitable distribution is imperative to ensure sustainable progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) and sustainable development goals (SGDs).
He made the remarks while addressing a dissemination workshop of Bangladesh National Health Accounts (BNHA) 1997-2015 at a Dhaka hotel.
Health Economics Unit (HEU) of the Health Services Division under the Ministry of Health arranged the workshop on Bangladesh National Health Accounts (BNHA) 1997-2015 with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), said a press release.
Maleque said the current BNHA data present fresh evidence as benchmarks in the health sector of the country aiming to help protect people from catastrophic health expenditure, reduce inequities in health services and make definitive strides towards universal health coverage.
The fifth round of BHNA estimates that Bangladesh spends only 3 percent of its GDP in the health sector. The first round of BNHA was released in 1997 while the second one in 2003, third in 2007 and fourth in 2012. The estimate of BNHA accounted per capita total health expenditure (THE) at US$ 37 in 2015 which was US$ 27 in 2012.
The BNHA that monitors the flow of resources in the country's health system and provides detailed data on health finances shows the government share on THE kept on declining. The THE was 37 percent in 1997, which came down to 23 percent in 2015.
The BNHA figures estimate that despite rising government revenues, the bulk of Bangladesh's health spending, a staggering 67 percent of health expenditure, is met by households out-of-pocket (OOP), which is the highest in this region.
The BNHA shows that there are significant regional disparities in health expenditure of Bangladesh. “Dhaka division consumed 46 percent of the total health expenditure where Barisal and Sylhet divisions consumed only 4 percent respectively. One of the major reasons of such disparities is the process of resource allocation.”
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