Bangladesh lags behind in achieving universal health coverage

- Access to health services in Bangladeshi is highly skewed in favor of the better off compared to the disadvantaged sections of the society, said a civil society report which was launched here Monday. This was the fourth report of Bangladesh Health Watch which was set up in 2006 as a civil society initiative to monitor the progress of good health for all in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Health Watch Report for 2011 said that health care cost in the South Asian country has been on the rise and quite often it results in impoverishment among individuals and families. In this year's report of the Bangladesh health Watch Report, studies are done to investigate Bangladesh's preparedness to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) within foreseeable future and identify opportunities as well as challenges which should be overcome. UHC refers to organized healthcare systems in which all people have access to essential healthcare services without the financial hardship associated with payment. According to the report, the UHC is ethically correct, financially viable and politically timely. It said member of states of the World Health Organization in the World Health Assembly of 2005 and 2011 have set themselves the target of developing their financing systems in order to accelerate and sustain progress toward UHC. As the movement for UHC intensifies globally, the report said there is an imperative for Bangladesh to prepare for it. The report ,titled "Moving Towards universal health coverage", said among the neighboring countries Thailand has achieved universal coverage for all its citizen. India also has also made some impressive progress recently towards universal health coverage, it said. Of the challenges for Bangladesh, it said affordability, level of political and public commitment to health, and the inadequate level and quality of healthcare services for people who are worse off -- either because they are poor or ill-- are the most important ones. Some form of pre-payments through insurance and other mechanisms will help in achieving UHC for the population of Bangladesh, said the report. In this connection, the report said recent experiences from countries such as Thiland, Ghana, and Rwanda which were successful in implementing health insurance schemes in varied context can be used for carving out a path for Bangladesh.