Impact of Out-of-Pocket Expenditures on Poverty and Inequalities in Use of Maternal and Child Health Services in Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh is committed to reaching the Millennium Development Goals and to ensuring access of its population to adequate healthcare services. It has expressed this commitment through the development of an extensive infrastructure of government healthcare facilities, where treatment is intended to be available to patients mostly free of charge. In previous years, the government has reduced most user charges to improve access by the poor to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) healthcare institutions, although there are proposals to introduce fees at the primary care level, while maintaining a safety net for the poor.

This country brief presents findings from analysis of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) rounds for 2000, 2005 and 2010 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2000, 2005 and 2010). The three surveys provide a basis to explore how utilization of health services has changed in 10 years, and how effective access is in practice. The surveys also permit examination of the patterns of child healthcare use in some depth and some limited analysis of maternal healthcare use.