Just a glimpse at the budget allocation for healthcare every year is enough to understand how terrible our indifference towards our health sector is. It has been seeing a decline in the budget allocation as a proportion of GDP, dropping to 0.83 percent in the current fiscal year. But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it should be at least five percent. Bangladesh ranks lowest in South Asia in terms of health allocation as a proportion of GDP. Currently, we have to pay 72 percent of our medical expenses out of our own pockets.

WHO has committed all member states to ensure universal health coverage (UHC), which means everyone will have access to quality healthcare as needed, regardless of financial constraints. Global health insurance is an important regulator in achieving UHC. Many countries in the world are or have been moving towards achieving UHC through private optional health insurance, community-based health insurance, compulsory payroll-tax-based social health insurance, etc. Germany and France took more than 100 years to cover 100 percent of their populations via social insurance. Many low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have continued efforts to implement labour-tax-based mandatory social health insurance for decades.