The Ministry of Health issued Decision No. 358/QD-BYT attached to the National Action Plan on breast cancer and cervical cancer prevention and control for the period 2026 – 2035. One of the notable contents of the Plan is the roadmap to include breast cancer and cervical cancer screening services in the health insurance payment list in the period 2028 – 2030.
According to the roadmap, the period 2028 - 2030 will be a key time to officially include breast cancer and cervical cancer screening services in the health insurance payment list. Specifically, the expected payment list includes clinical breast examination, breast X-ray and tests to support early diagnosis of breast cancer; and gradually integrate cervical cancer screening costs such as HPV testing and cytogenetics into the health insurance benefit package.
This expansion aims to ensure that women in all regions, regardless of economic or ethnic conditions, have equal access to early detection services right from the grassroots health level.
According to the Ministry of Health, stable financial resources from universal health insurance are a decisive factor in expanding the coverage of cancer screening in Vietnam. Integrating the cost of periodic check-ups, mammograms and screening tests into the health insurance benefit package not only helps remove financial barriers, but also ensures fairness in accessing health services, maintaining the sustainability of the cancer prevention and control program.
More importantly, this is the foundation for Vietnam to gradually shift its focus from "late treatment" to "early prevention", contributing to improving the effectiveness of women's health protection and population quality in the long term.
In Vietnam, breast cancer and cervical cancer are the two cancers that pose the biggest burden on women's health. In 2022, the whole country recorded more than 24,500 new cases of breast cancer and about 10,000 deaths, of which more than 60% of patients were detected in the late stage, causing low treatment effectiveness and increased costs.
With cervical cancer – a disease that can be prevented and detected early – Vietnam still recorded more than 4,600 new cases and 2,571 deaths in 2022; the number of cases continued to increase rapidly in the period 2020–2024. The burden of disease not only puts pressure on the health system but also pushes patients into high treatment costs, up to hundreds of millions of VND.
