The out-of-pocket expenditure as a share of current health expenditure for Bangladesh has risen by 1.50 percentage points from the previous record, according to a research of the Health Ministry.
Currently, a patient has to spend 68.50% of the total treatment cost which was previously 67%, a rate already quite high from a world perspective.
The information was revealed at a program titled “Pathways to reduce household out of pocket expenditure” at Hotel InterContinental on Sunday.
Patients spend a whopping 64% on drugs, while 23% goes for hospital expenses (both indoors and outdoors) and 8% for diagnosis purposes.
The expenditure in 2012 was 64%. Despite the strategy taken to reduce the expenditure by 32% in 2032, it is increasing day by day.
As a result of this some 16.4% of patients refrain from seeking treatment, as per the study.
Meanwhile, the Health Economic Unit of the health ministry recommended five points to help reduce the health care cost in the country, including the introduction of integrated e-health services in community clinics and upazila health complexes, increasing testing facilities and supplying adequate medicines.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said, “It is important to promote health awareness among people while preventing environmental pollution as well.”
“We are working to put a leash on medicine cost, which has been the highest. Non-curable diseases that require lifetime drug-dependency add to this high expenditure rate,” the minister said.
“The cost of receiving treatment abroad is one of the reasons behind the rise of out-of-pocket expenditure. Cancer and cardiovascular treatments need to improve,” he said hoping that eight new cancer hospitals that are on the cards will reduce the cost burden in future.
The minister further suggested that people need to adapt to the annual health check-up culture which is still new to our country.
“National budget allocation for the sector is only 2.4% of the GDP and it is quite lower compared to other countries. However, we spent Tk30,000 crore for Covid-19 treatment,” Zahid Maleque said adding, “People could not go abroad during the pandemic, instead they received treatment at home, which indicates our health sector is capable of serving our people.”
