What happens when a country treats public health as a residual cost instead of an economic engine?
Traditionally, governments fund health care only after economic growth is secured.
But in Bangladesh, public health allocation sits at less than 1% of GDP.
This creates a brutal mathematical consequence.
A 68% out-of-pocket burden shifted directly onto citizens.
The human fallout?
Nearly five million people are pushed into poverty every year paying for basic care.
This is a systemic failure, not just a humanitarian crisis.
When citizens are bankrupted by medical bills,
untreated illnesses rise and the healthy workforce fractures.
That's why health system resilience is actually economic protection.
A healthy workforce is the foundational infrastructure of productivity.
Which means public health spending generates economic returns rather than consuming them.
A resilient health system doesn't just save lives.
It protects the entire economy.
Human in purpose. Systemic in method.
Protective in outcome.