Similar to many other countries around the world, Bangladesh is also suffering from a pandemic of diabetes. It makes the most significant contribution to morbidity and mortality in this country. Despite the high burden of diabetes, health care is still geared toward episodic care. The government has not yet invested substantial efforts into developing a national policy to detect, prevent, and control diabetes. Still, diabetes care is restricted to capital and other big cities. More than 60% of people with diabetes usually sought treatment and advice from private facilities, including the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh. For the past six decades, the Association has been trying to develop a proper organizational framework, health care, educational institutions, rehabilitation facilities for poor people with diabetes, appropriate diabetes prevention, and education programs. To address the pandemic, the country should focus on nationwide diabetes prevention and control programs, such as creating community awareness and changing lifestyle practices through well-designed public health programs. The country also needs public–private partnerships and multi-sectoral approaches to overcome the diabetes burden.

Organized universal health coverage has not yet been introduced in most developing countries, including Bangladesh. Private health care is affordable only to the high-income group. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to evaluate health service coverage with disease prevention, access to health information, and cost control through health financing to help take appropriate decisions for the betterment of garment workers in Bangladesh. The study was conducted in seven readymade garments (RMG) factories in the Gazipur district from 24 April 2014 to 23 April 2015.A total of 9717 workers aged 18 to 60 years and belonging to the lowest salary groups were included in this Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance (ESHI) scheme. This new model of Health Micro Insurance (HMI) had treatment, laboratory facilities, health education, and medicine supply. The annual coverage for treatment cost was up to 15000 Bangladeshi taka (BDT) or US$192.8 and the premium for enrolment in the scheme was 487 BDT (US$6.3). An agreement foresaw that the surplus cost accrued was equally shared between the insurance company and the factory owner. A common software was used to generate and view all medical information. A total of 4524 (46.6%) workers (60.5% male and 39.5% female) received treatment. The participant's mean age was 28.3 years. The mean consultancy rate was 4.7 times. Participants mostly suffered from gastrointestinal problems(24.4%), and most prescribed medications were anti-ulcer drugs. The median value of drug cost, investigation cost, consultancy fees, and total medical cost were 126 (1.49 USD), 315 (3.71 USD), 200 (2.36 USD), and 734 BDT (8.66), respectively. The annual net premium paid by the factory owner was 4094504 BDT (48744 USD), and the total healthcare cost accrued was 5230156 BDT (62263 USD). This ESHI scheme is a better option for HMI for making healthcare accessible to the largest RMG sector in a developing country like Bangladesh.