Expand purview of universal health coverage

Speakers at a dialogue on Monday suggested widening the purview of the universal health coverage (UHC), saying it should include neglected areas, such as mental health, antimicrobial resistance, oral health, occupational health and safety, and emergency care.

There had been a growing concern over increased health expenditure, lack of financial protection for patients, and rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Bangladesh in recent years, they said.

They also observed that many poorer and extremely poor households were becoming unable to initiate health spending at all, prompting the introduction of a new dimension in financial hardship.

The dialogue titled "Monitoring Progress on Universal Health Coverage" was organised by the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and the UHC Forum, with support from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), at the CIRDAP Auditorium in the capital.

It was part of a series of planned engagements aimed at strengthening reform advocacy on primary health care (PHC) and advancing progress monitoring on UHC.

The event brought together policymakers, health professionals, researchers, and civil society representatives to assess Bangladesh's current trajectory toward UHC and examine the effectiveness of the existing monitoring arrangements.

PPRC Chairman and Convener of UHC Forum Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman moderated the discussion.

Former director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Kalam Azad; Adviser of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Dr Mushtuq Husain; and UHC Forum Member Dr Aminul Hasan spoke on the occasion, among others.

Dr Aminul Hasan set the context for the discussion, noting that while Bangladesh had made measurable progress in several health outcomes, access to quality health services remained uneven and financial protection against health-related expenditures continued to be limited for a large segment of the population.

The current estimates indicated that a substantial proportion of households faced financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health spending, underscoring persistent challenges in achieving UHC targets, he said.

Participants noted that health data collection remained largely non-digital, fragmented, and vulnerable to manipulation, undermining the credibility of reported progress and complicating accountability across political transitions.

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