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Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in a country refers to the state of having equitable access to essential healthcare services by their entire population without them suffering any financial adversities associated with the healthcare cost. Bangladesh has not yet been successful in establishing UHC due to numerous health system weaknesses. This review was conducted to explore the barriers associated with three key health system building blocks (i.e., health workforce, healthcare financing, and health sector governance) in Bangladesh and demonstrate their impact on the progress towards UHC. As the theoretical framework for this analysis, the health systems framework by WHO was used in conjunction with the evidence generated by Reich et al. (2016) on the successful adoption and implementation of UHC in a country. Accordingly, an extensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and relevant organizational websites. Findings from this review identified shortage, skill-mix imbalance, and inequitable geographical distribution as the most critical health workforce challenges in Bangladesh. Secondly, low health budget, absence of national health insurance, and high out-of-pocket expenditure were evident as some crucial health financing barriers. Finally, the lack of a strong regulatory framework and well-defined chain of accountability coupled with the highly centralized healthcare system created some grave governance issues in the health sector of Bangladesh. The cumulative impact of these barriers was found to be hindering the country’s progress towards UHC. |
