Healthcare in Vietnam

Vietnam is currently striving towards a universal health care system through government-provided social health insurance. In 2018, about 87% of the population had health insurance coverage. The government fully covers the health insurance costs of the poor, ethnic minorities, children under 6, and elderly people over 80.^[1][2]

Maternal and child healthcare

In June 2011, the United Nations Population Fund released a report on The State of the World's Midwifery. It contained new data on the midwifery workforce and policies relating to newborn and maternal mortality for 59 countries. The 2015 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births for Vietnam is 56.7. This is compared with 64.3 in 2008 and 157.9 in 1990. The under-5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births, is 24, and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under-5's mortality is 52. The aim of this report is to highlight ways in which the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, particularly Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality and Goal 5 – improve maternal death. In Vietnam the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is unavailable and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women 1 in 850.^[3]

Prenatal screening

Tine M. Gammeltoft, an anthropologist at the University of Copenhagen has described the interplay between the individual and the state during prenatal screening, "In the realm of reproduction, intense sentiments of anxiety, dread, desire, ambition, and hope tie together the state and [Vietnam's] citizens, animating individual aspirations as well as national population policies".^[4]

An increase in the prevalence of

Because of the particularly high prevalence of HIV infections in women of childbearing age world wide, in addition to Vietnam's high HIV/AIDS diagnosis rate, health counseling during the prenatal period is also focused on HIV positive expectant mothers. Since 1996, women have had access to programs designed to reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child, but still face the decision of whether or not to terminate their pregnancy out of concern for the child's long term care. Many women decide to have an abortion because of the fear that they will not be able to care for the child. This is common even when the family desires to have a child.^{[citation needed]}

Providers

Public sector

Nguyen Truong Son, deputy

• 108 Hospital in Hanoi
• Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi
• Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi
• Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

Private sector

• Health in Vietnam

References