Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has requested the Ministry of Health and the Vietnam Social Security to take tough measures to boost the country’s health insurance coverage rate to 75% in 2015 and 80% by 2020. The request was made at a meeting on March 4 to review the implementation of the Law on Health Insurance and the blueprint for universal health insurance. The health insurance coverage was estimated at 71.6% at the end of 2014, but as few as 40% of the total number of the poor and the near-poor people, equivalent to 2.5 million ones, have joined health insurance. Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien attributed the low coverage to high premiums, low medical services quality, and bottlenecks in insurance payments, which will be difficult to reach the remaining ratio of 30%. Health is the most precious resource of the individual and the society, and public health service is a special social service, not for profit and the government is committed to improving the healthcare system towards a fair and effective system to ensure that every citizen, especially vulnerable people, have access to basic and qualified healthcare. However, the poor still miss out on healthcare in Vietnam as the treatment fees are too much for them to afford. A Hanoi-based hospital has recently run a message on its website, asking for support from benefactors and donors. The message says many patients were incapable of paying for treatment fees or daily meals – or any other costs at the hospital. The director of another big hospital in Hanoi said that he had met many patients with serious diseases who were very poor. Some even had to sell their properties and houses to come to Hanoi for treatment, but many finally gave up because the fees were too high. “Sometimes, patients just don’t show up at appointments. When we ask, we find out they have gone back to their home towns to spend the last of their days,” he said. A doctor working at Bach Mai Hospital said one of her patients committed suicide last year because he did not have enough money to pay for daily treatment for his kidney disease. On the same day, the PM also chaired a meeting with the Health Ministry, where he said that the government has invested over VND120 trillion ($5.6 billion) in the health sector since 2008. (chinhphu.vn Mar 5, Sai Gon Giai Phong – Saigon Liberation Mar 5)
