HEALTH INSURANCE IN VIETNAM: ISSUES BEHIND THE SCENE
Since 1961, health insurance (HI) has become a part of the social policies in Vietnam. In 2008, the HI laws were revised and approved for a better future of HI. In 2012, the government promotes an eight-year period (2012-2020) to foster the citizen participating in HI at 80% of the population in 2020. However, the citizen hesitates to participate in HI because of the unequal access to health care and treatment inadequacy toward the insured patients. This article will open some issues and suggest changes for the future of HI in Vietnam.
Medical Issues
Many patients and their families experience that they are treated as the second-class people with their HI. The hospital delays administration …show more content…
The HI system requires the insured to register a place called “the first health care admission hospital/center” (at the lowest level). It means whenever a person gets sick, he/she must come to this fist hospital/center for treatment. Then this hospital will make a transfer (or referral) to the next level (higher-quality hospitals) if needed. This complicated system of transfer and referral makes many patients die due to its delay before patients reach an appropriate level of treatment. This policy completely put patients in danger, and the travelers get less benefit from HI because when they get sick, it is impossible for them to return to the first hospital that they registered. The right of immediate and appropriate health care access is completely controlled by the location restriction. Health care system abuses HI fund. Many patients with different symptoms experience that the hospital makes the same diagnosis process, such as X-ray taken, computerized tomography (CT) scan, blood test, and bulk prescription. Some diagnosis steps are unnecessary, but the hospital knows that HI will completely or partly cover for the treatment. In some provinces, the dubious management will quickly drain the HI …show more content…
For many years, these problems have unofficially appeared on news, blogs, social media, and non-government publication. One easily finds more than two million articles and online posts which discussing the problems of medical ethics in Vietnam. Without a resolution for this system, promoting HI participation will be against values of medical ethic. After all, patients are trapped in a slow-killing system that they hope in their health
Since 1961, health insurance (HI) has become a part of the social policies in Vietnam. In 2008, the HI laws were revised and approved for a better future of HI. In 2012, the government promotes an eight-year period (2012-2020) to foster the citizen participating in HI at 80% of the population in 2020. However, the citizen hesitates to participate in HI because of the unequal access to health care and treatment inadequacy toward the insured patients. This article will open some issues and suggest changes for the future of HI in Vietnam.
Medical Issues
Many patients and their families experience that they are treated as the second-class people with their HI. The hospital delays administration …show more content…
The HI system requires the insured to register a place called “the first health care admission hospital/center” (at the lowest level). It means whenever a person gets sick, he/she must come to this fist hospital/center for treatment. Then this hospital will make a transfer (or referral) to the next level (higher-quality hospitals) if needed. This complicated system of transfer and referral makes many patients die due to its delay before patients reach an appropriate level of treatment. This policy completely put patients in danger, and the travelers get less benefit from HI because when they get sick, it is impossible for them to return to the first hospital that they registered. The right of immediate and appropriate health care access is completely controlled by the location restriction. Health care system abuses HI fund. Many patients with different symptoms experience that the hospital makes the same diagnosis process, such as X-ray taken, computerized tomography (CT) scan, blood test, and bulk prescription. Some diagnosis steps are unnecessary, but the hospital knows that HI will completely or partly cover for the treatment. In some provinces, the dubious management will quickly drain the HI …show more content…
For many years, these problems have unofficially appeared on news, blogs, social media, and non-government publication. One easily finds more than two million articles and online posts which discussing the problems of medical ethics in Vietnam. Without a resolution for this system, promoting HI participation will be against values of medical ethic. After all, patients are trapped in a slow-killing system that they hope in their health