The African country of Benin ranks first in the list of countries with the lowest government spending on health as a percentage of GDP compared to all the countries in the world. The next name of the country is Bangladesh. Benin’s government allocation to the health sector is 0.32 percent. After that, Bangladesh is in the second place. Government expenditure on health sector in Bangladesh is 0.40 percent. Haiti, which is number three in the list, has more government spending on health than Bangladesh. Haiti’s health sector government spending is 0.43 percent.
The speakers gave this information at the round table meeting titled ‘Health Expenditure: A Critical Challenge in Ensuring Health Care in Bangladesh’ organized at the Azimur Rahman Auditorium of the Daily Star Bhawan in the capital on Tuesday.
In the round table meeting, the main article was presented by the convener of civil society and country director of IPAS Bangladesh. Syed Robayet. The opening speech was given by Golam Mortaza, Editor of Daily Star (Bangla Section).
Dr. in the original article. Syed Robayet said that in 2000, 0.51 percent of the total GDP in Bangladesh was allocated for health expenditure. It’s been uphill and downhill. Since 2017, the budget has been continuously decreasing. Our GDP has grown (in dollars) but 0.40 percent of total GDP in 2021 is government health spending. If we look at 2000, Myanmar and Nepal had less government spending on health than Bangladesh as a percentage of GDP. Currently, the Bangladesh government spends the least in the region.
He also said that health budget in Bangladesh is low in proportion to GDP. This is the picture in neighboring countries, Bhutan’s health budget is also going down. But still Bhutan spends five times more than Bangladesh in terms of their GDP. India has made steady progress in this regard. India spends two and a half times more on health than Bangladesh. Sri Lanka has four and a half times more than us even though it is in the ups and downs.
Maldives has made steady progress in this regard. Myanmar has steadily improved. Nepal has also improved. Pakistan is in ups and downs. But no country comes close to Bangladesh, as no country except Pakistan has government health expenditure below one percent of GDP.
Dr. Syed Abdul Hamid, Professor of Health Economics Department of Dhaka University, Professor of Population Science of Dhaka University discussed further in the round table meeting. Muhammad Mainul Islam, health director of Eyepass Bangladesh. Wahida Siraj, ICDDRB scientist Dr. Ahmed Ehsanur Rahman, Women Project Director Samia Afrin, Care Bangladesh Health and Nutrition Program Director Ikhtiyar Uddin Khandkar, OGSB President Dr. Farahana Dewan, Ain and Shalis Center Project Officer Santa Islam and Prothom Alo journalist Shishir Moral and others.
The speakers in the round table meeting said that the condition of the country’s health sector is not improving as most of the people at the policy-making level of Bangladesh are receiving treatment outside the country. If they had received treatment in the country, the picture of the health system would have changed. Speakers from the meeting emphasized government allocations to reduce patients’ out-of-pocket medical expenses and government pharmaceutical companies to produce more drugs.
Apart from increasing the allocation in the health sector, they also emphasized on creating qualified and efficient manpower to spend the allocated money.
