Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Bangladesh Ministry of Health and the Health Finance and Governance Project
Published: 5/31/2015
Resource Description:

National Health Accounts (NHA) encompass total health spending in a country – including public, private, non-government organizations (NGOs), households, and donor expenditures. NHAs carefully track the amount and flow of funds from one health care actor to another, such as the distribution of funds from the Ministry of Health to each government health provider and health service. NHAs are a standardized tool designed to help governments determine how best to shape health financing policy and then later determine whether those policies are working as intended. These policies include those that affect public and private health spending to improve efficiency, quality, equity, financial protection in the context of universal health coverage and, ultimately, in saving lives. In addition, secondary analyses of NHA help answer questions such as, what proportion of spending goes to urban/rural, RMNCH, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or other specific diseases or areas.

This brief presents preliminary findings of a secondary analysis of Bangladesh National Health Accounts (BNHA) IV focused on tracking urban health expenditures. This analysis is important given the rapid urbanization in Bangladesh, with 23% of the population currently living in urban areas.