Health Financing and Delivery in Vietnam

Vietnam’s successes in the health sector are legendary. Its rates of infant and under-five mortality are comparable to those of countries with substantially higher per capita incomes. Vietnam continues to be an over-achiever in the health sector according to data assembled in this book. Like other countries, though, Vietnam faces challenges in its health system. By international standards, for example, Vietnam has a high incidence of catastrophic household health spending—a large fraction of households make out-of-pocket payments for health care that exceeds a reasonable fraction of their income. To address this and related issues, Vietnam has been extending the breadth of health insurance coverage. Questions remain, however, about how to further expand coverage, and how to put downward pressure on health care costs, which are rising rapidly, and upward pressure on the quality of care, which some evidence suggests is low. This book generates new evidence and new insights on these topics, and sets out some ideas for further reforming Vietnam’s health system.