Investing more in public healthcare

The healthcare expenditure of Bangladesh continues to rise, leaving a sizeable population with humongous medical bills. A number of people live here under the poverty line, with meagre daily wages. Hence, medical treatment is the luxury of the rich as it is unaffordable by the poor. Often people lose their loved ones due to expensive medical care. Against such a sad background, Bangladesh has seen exponential growth of finances being diverted to medical care. Between 2015 and 2020, the expense for treatment borne directly by a patient has increased to 68.5 per cent from 67 per cent, according to a recent study. So, the reduction of medical treatment cost is the need of the hour for preventing such exorbitant drain of money.
People are not satisfied at all with the service of government medical institutions. Even the poor who have no other options than taking treatment in state-run medical college hospitals try to avoid them. Those who can afford private healthcare facilities do not want to seek treatment from the public ones.
Our policymakers should come forward and increase investment in public healthcare services. Introducing health insurance nationally can be a viable solution to the existing problems. We believe that it is possible to provide better healthcare services in the existing system if the management is sound and if irregularities and corruption are curbed with a strong hand.

Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),
syedashikujaman@yahoo.com