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Acknowledging the urgent need, the BNP has pledged a universal healthcare system modelled on the UK’s National Health Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The commitments include allocating more than 5% of GDP to health, providing free primary treatment for every citizen, and bringing all hospitals and health centres under accountability mechanisms.<\/p>\n
The party has also promised a 24-hour helpline, strengthen district and specialised hospitals, expand access to complex treatments through public-private partnerships, and recruit 1 lakh health workers.<\/p>\n
Jamaat has announced that, if elected, it would allocate between 6% and 8% of GDP to health, alongside free healthcare for citizens over 60 and children under five.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The party has also pledged to establish specialised hospitals in all 64 districts and ensure health and nutrition security for mothers and children from pregnancy until a child reaches two years of age.<\/p>\n
Experts described the pledges as ambitious but broadly positive.<\/p>\n
However, they warned that just allocating 5% of GDP to health would mean spending roughly Tk3.13\u202flakh\u202fcrore. Besides, the interim government is planning a 104% average salary increase for government employees, requiring an additional Tk1.06\u202flakh\u202fcrore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Combined with party promises, the next government would face a substantial fiscal burden, experts said, raising questions about the feasibility of fully funding these ambitious pledges.<\/p>\n
They advised that making these pledges achievable will require structural reforms, phased implementation, curbing corruption, and clear explanations of how the commitments would be carried out.<\/p>\n
‘Reforms must be achieved gradually’<\/p>\n
Professor Dr Syed Akram Hossain, a member of the health sector reform commission, said the commission had also recommended allocating 5% of GDP to health, a position now reflected in political pledges.<\/p>\n
He said achieving universal health coverage would ultimately require health spending to reach 5% of GDP, which would mean raising the sector’s share to nearly 25% of the total budget.<\/p>\n
“However, that is not feasible for the state at this moment,” he said, adding that proposals to allocate 6-8% of GDP were even more ambitious under the current fiscal structure.<\/p>\n
Dr Akram said the target should be pursued gradually, possibly over five years, supported by alternative revenue sources such as tobacco taxes and improved spending capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Without structural reforms in health administration, effectively utilising such a large allocation would remain unrealistic,” he added.<\/p>\n
Commenting on Jamaat-e-Islami’s pledges of free healthcare and specialised hospitals, Dr Akram said these reflected commendable aspirations for the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He noted that the commission had recommended making primary healthcare legally free and modernising district hospitals to provide comprehensive services, which alone would significantly benefit citizens.<\/p>\n
“If universal health coverage is achieved, separate promises for mothers, children or older people become unnecessary, as everyone would be covered,” he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Akram added that proposals from political parties are broadly consistent with the commission’s recommendations. “All reforms would need to be implemented gradually.”<\/p>\n
‘Little clarity on how health pledges would be implemented’<\/p>\n
Dr Shafiun Shimul, director of Health Economics at Dhaka University, said political parties have outlined broad directions but offered little clarity on how their health pledges would be implemented.<\/p>\n
He said it remains unclear whether parties intend to move towards an insurance-based model or simply expand the existing health financing system.<\/p>\n
Dr Shimul said prioritising health in election manifestos is a positive step, but without clarity on funding sources, spending structures, and the scope of coverage, the promises will be difficult to realise.<\/p>\n
“We are still unable to effectively spend even 1% of GDP. In that context, questions remain about how 6% or more would be utilised,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that coverage for mental health, elderly care, and non-communicable diseases remains weak in Bangladesh, and expanding these areas would inevitably raise costs.<\/p>\n
“The problem is not increasing the budget, but the failure to reform flawed spending structures and internal allocation systems,” he said.<\/p>\n
He further said party proposals suggest limited adjustments or expansion of the existing system rather than a comprehensive restructuring of the health sector.<\/p>\n
“In effect, there appears to be a greater focus on expanding the current system rather than building a fully integrated and restructured healthcare framework,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health has emerged as a central issue in the lead-up to the national election, with political parties placing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-254851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}