'Individual health cost must come down to 30pc to attain SDG'

Individual health cost must come down to 30 per cent from the existing 67 per cent to attain the health related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

"It is essential to raise government allocation on health sector to reduce the out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure to 30 per cent from 67 per cent to attain sustainable progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health- related SGD," Director General (additional secretary) of the Health Economics Unit M Ashadul Islam has said.

The government bears only 23 per cent of the country’s total health expenditures while 3 per cent comes from voluntary payment schemes and 7 per cent from foreign donor agencies," he said.

"The government allocation in health sector is increasing gradually every year, but it is not sufficient and finally the people have to spend a major portion of the health expenditure from their own pockets," he added.

According to Bangladesh National Health Accounts (BNHA) 1997-2015, the government's sharing on the total health expenditure (THE) kept on declining as the medical costs including medicines and hospital services become costlier. – BSS