Experts call for strategic investment to cut out-of-pocket health spending
Nearly 79% of Bangladesh's total health expenditure is currently borne out-of-pocket, far higher than in most South Asian countries – meaning a single illness can push a family into financial distress.
While the increased health-sector allocation for 2026-27 has been welcomed, experts, economists, doctors and health journalists warn that the bigger challenge lies in cutting out-of-pocket expenditure, curbing corruption, improving administrative efficiency and ensuring proper implementation.
A larger budget alone, they said, will not improve outcomes unless funds are spent in the right areas, at the right time, through the right mechanisms. The observations came at a workshop titled "Health Budget 2026-27," organised by the National Doctors Forum (NDF) today (17 June) at Rupayan Trade Centre in Banglamotor, Dhaka.
In his remarks as chair of the workshop, NDF Senior Vice-President Dr AKM Waliullah said that corruption, broker networks and the influence of certain vested groups remain major problems in government hospitals and healthcare institutions across the country.
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He added that in many cases, powerful networks of lower-level hospital staff obstruct administrative operations, resulting in patients facing harassment and being deprived of the services they are supposed to receive.
Presenting the keynote, Professor Rumana Haq of Dhaka University's Department of Economics said increased public health investment is tied not just to better services but to poverty reduction, productivity and human capital development.
Nearly 79% of Bangladesh's total health expenditure is currently borne out-of-pocket, far higher than in most South Asian countries – meaning a single illness can push a family into financial distress.
Rumana Haq said Tk69,409 crore has been allocated to health for 2026-27, equivalent to 1.01% of GDP and 7.4% of the national budget – the highest in a decade – with priority given to primary healthcare, disease prevention, maternal and child health, nutrition, immunisation and non-communicable disease screening.
She also cited tax cuts on cardiac stents to ease costs for heart patients, alongside proposals to reduce taxes on eye-surgery lenses, dialysis equipment and cancer-drug raw materials.
Joining online, Professor Syed Abdul Hamid of Dhaka University's Institute of Health Economics said that without tackling corruption, political interference and bureaucratic delays, a bigger allocation won't translate into better outcomes.
Public hospitals, he said, still suffer shortages in cleanliness, medicine supply and patient-friendly services, and called for hospital managers to be given greater financial and administrative authority alongside stronger accountability in procurement and maintenance.
Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum President Pratik Ejaz said administrative inefficiency remains a major challenge, with significant funds going unspent each year, and called for improved planning and implementation capacity.
