The government proposed a Tk 3,356 crore increase in budget allocation for the health and family welfare sector for the FY2024–25 which experts viewed inadequate.
Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Thursday proposed Tk 41,407 crore for health and family welfare sector in the FY2024–25, up from Tk 38,052 crore in the outgoing FY2023–24.
Dhaka University health economics institute professor Syed Abdul Hamid observed that the increased amount hardly could cover the inflation.
‘Out-of pocket healthcare expenditure will increase again,’ he feared.
Health budget proposed to increase 8.8 per cent, while the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics reported inflation at 9.73 per cent.
Professor Syed Abdul Hamid said that the increased allocation would be spent for development work in the sector and staff salary and so the patients would have to pay more to get service.
Of the proposed health sector allocations, Tk 21,218 crore is allotted to operational cost and Tk 20,190 to development cost.
‘Overall healthcare budget has decreased if you consider the inflation rate. The new budget will increase out-of-pocket expenditure again,’ said Bangladesh Medical Association former president and public health expert Rashid E Mahbub.
He said that at present hospitals failed to provide free of cost drugs for supply shortage and proper care for manpower crisis, and added that both of the problems would deepen.
In 2020, people spent Tk 68.5 from their pocket for each Tk 100 expenses, up from their out-of-pocket expenditure of Tk 67 five years ago, according to the National Health Accounts, a wing of government’s Health Economics Unit.
The share of out-of-pocket health expenditure in the country was 56 per cent in 1997, the year the report was first published.
Rashid E Mahbub said that healthcare allocation then was 7 per cent of the total budget.
He also mentioned that the health sector could not spend all allocated money despite huge corruption allegations in implementing the projects.
According to the budget document, the revised budget for healthcare was Tk 29,749 in the outgoing FY2023–24 as Tk 8,270 could not be spent.
In his budget speech, finance minister AH Mahmood Ali said that 10,500 doctors, 15,000 nurses, 1,000 midwives, and 650 medical technologists were recruited last year. Another recruitment of 10,000 nurses was underway.
He placed the latest budget of Tk 7,97,000 crore keeping the highest 22.1 per cent for public administration, 14.2 per cent for paying interest, 14 per cent for education and technology.
Health sector allocation is 5.2 per cent of the total budget which was 5 per cent in the outgoing budget.
He proposed to reduce the existing import duty on dialysis filter and dialysis circuit from 10 per cent to 1 per cent.
Health rights activists have urged the government to build capacity for health sector employees so that they can use the allocated money with efficacy and focus on public wellbeing.
Bangladesh continued to spend around 5 per cent of its national budget on health sector, one of the lowest health investments in the world.
Experts said that the health budget should comprise at least 8 per cent of the total budget.
The per capita health expenditure in Bangladesh is just $45, while it is $58 in Nepal, $73 in India, $103 in Bhutan and $157 in Sri Lanka.