More rural healthcare funding could cut out-of-pocket costs by 18%: Economist

Increasing the allocation for health sector from 5% to 7-8% of the national budget to boost free medicine supply in rural healthcare facilities and filling the vacant posts at those facilities can reduce out-of-pocket health expenditures to a significant extent, said eminent economist and Unnayan Shamannay Chair Professor Atiur Rahman.

Presenting the keynote paper at a discussion session on health budget Monday (16 January), Professor Atiur also showed the results of a simulation which shows increased allocations for the said purposes can reduce out-of-pocket health expenditure from 69% to 51%.

The paper presented at the event, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Health Watch, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, and Unnayan Shamannay, was based on research conducted to determine health budget changes required to reduce out-of-pocket health expenditure in rural areas.

Former Planning Secretary Mamun-al-Rashid was present as the chief guest while Professor M Abu Eusuf, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Senior Research Fellow SM Zulfiqar Ali, and health ministry Additional Secretary Kazi Zebunnessa Begum were present as honorable guests.

Speakers said that the current health expenditure in Bangladesh has the lowest ratio and is the lowest in South Asia. Due to lower government allocations for the health sector, the country's out-of-pocket health expenditure remains high. Therefore, public allocations to the health sector must be increased in a prudent manner.

Professor Eusuf said if quality health services could be made available in peripheral areas like those in Dhaka and some other big cities the out-of-pocket expense will reduce.

Zulfiqar Ali highlighted the economic impact of high health expenses on poorer households while he said that the country could advance further in poverty reduction if the expenditure could be reduced.

Zebunnesa Begum, in her remarks, emphasised effective coordination among the stakeholders and a strong monitoring mechanism to translate the healthcare-related political commitments into actions.

Mamun-al-Rashid pointed out the lack of capacity of the relevant ministries and divisions/directorates in implementing the budget as a major obstacle to increasing allocations for the health sector. He suggested enhancing the capacity of spending the allocated resources.