Health Financing and Delivery in Vietnam: Looking Forward

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Health Financing and Delivery in Vietnam explicitly not covered are: (a) treatment of leprosy; (b) specific drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis, malaria, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and other diseases if the costs have been covered by the state budget via national health programs, projects, or other financial sources; (c) the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS (except HIV tests prescribed by doctors and treatment of patients defined in Decision No. 265/2003/QD-TTg dated December 16, 2003, of the prime minister concerning policy for people exposed to HIV or infected by HIV/AIDS as a result of occupational risks), gonorrhea, and syphilis; (d) vaccination, convalescence, early detected pregnancy tests, medical checkup, including periodical checkup, examination of health to recruit laborers, for recruitment for the army and universities; family planning services and treatment of infertility; (e) prosthesis, aesthetic surgery; costs of artificial arm, leg, tooth, glasses, hearing aid; (f ) treatment of occupational diseases; accidents at work (at the work place, during working hours or while working overtime required by employers or not at the work place while doing tasks assigned by employers; accidents that happen on the way to or back from work); injuries caused by the war or natural disasters; (g) treatment of cases of suicide, self-inflicted injuries; drug addiction, or injuries resulted from offenses against the law; h) Medical appraisal, forensic appraisal, mental examination; (i) medical treatment, rehabilitation, and diagnosis at the patients’ residence; (j) drugs not included in the lists stipulated by the MOH, drugs consumed on special requirement of patients; utilization of treatment methods not yet permitted by the MOH; (k) participants in research and clinical experiments. 9. These figures are lower than the official VSS figures. It is not clear why. 10. Workers in international organizations and international NGOs are presumably covered by their employers’ schemes. 11. In 2006, according to MOH’s Health Statistics Yearbook, only 30 percent took place in a hospital or polyclinic. 12. See also Trivedi 2003 on this issue. He uses data from the 1997–98 Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS). 13. In 2006, according to VSS data, just over 6 million were enrolled in the formal sector worker health insurance scheme, while about 6.5 million were in the compulsory pensions program. The latter includes, however, government officials, military personnel, and public security employees, some or all of whom may be classified as “meritorious persons” by VSS in their health insurance statistics. 14. Households in Colombia wanting to benefit from subsidized health insurance apply to have their means assessed, which involves a government official visiting the house and recording information on 15 indicators of living standards. These include the home appliances owned by the household, its


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