THE demand of health services entrepreneurs that they voiced at the Bangladesh Health Conclave 2025 in Dhaka on August 30 for the deregulation of the health sector in private hands is not only irrational but also ludicrous as it amounts to irregulation. The health services actors in the private sector have demanded that prices of medicines and services should also be left for market forces to determine. The propositions altogether constitute an affront to the sound principles of democratic governance, as the government is there for making interventions in public interest, and of market economy, as this can lower standards, lead to market failure and create monopoly. Representatives of the private healthcare sector have argued that over-regulation stifles growth and innovation. The proposition may, theoretically, be negligibly true but in a healthcare market such as Bangladesh鈥檚 where private health services actors account for, as Private Hospital, Clinic and Diagnostics Owners鈥� Association says, 73 per cent of the whole of healthcare services, the proposition would readily spell disaster. This appears evident in that the call for deregulation and leaving prices for market forces to determine has come up after the government has made a move to set prices for essential medicines and medical tests.
The special adviser on the health sector to the chief adviser to the interim government, who has attended, has rightly rejected the demand, noting that government regulation is essential to ensure citizens鈥� access to health services. Noting that there could be no rationale for the deregulation of the private healthcare sector, he has further said that the health sector is nowhere free of regulation. He has, rather, said that the government is working to ensure a reasonable profit for health services actors in the private sector, adding that the government would also look into if there is any exploitative mechanism in private-sector healthcare entities. Entrepreneurs have argued that the private health services sector should regulate itself, saying that government control is unnecessary. They have resented that some people believe that private facilities mean only profit. But what happened in the private health services sector regarding tests and treatment during the Covid outbreak in 2020 tells a tale of only profit. The costs of tests in private facilities are still prohibitively higher than that in public facilities. The entrepreneurs have also resented multiple challenges in the establishment of health facilities as they need approval of 18 public agencies. But no compliance with legislation would make it almost impossible for the government to stop legal breaches.
The government should, rather, ease compliance procedures, meaningfully increase budgetary allocation for the health sector, amend laws, if needed, to plug the loopholes and allow public-private partnership. But there is no scope for the deregulation of the private health services sector. It should also arm up relevant agencies to ensure effective health services.
