Health insurance coverage with more than 91.25 million participants
Since the health insurance benefits have been expanded, many people have actively chosen to see a health insurance doctor, instead of choosing the same service every time they are sick.
When he showed signs of stomach pain, Mr. Hoang Van Tien (Cau Giay Ward, Hanoi) went to Hospital E near his home for early examination. Although he had a health insurance check-up, Mr. Tien had all the results and a prescription in the morning.
"Before, I was sick so I examined the service quickly, without having to wait long and the service was better, but recently, the examination of health insurance and service examination at hospitals in Hanoi has shortened the distance quite a lot, so instead of examining the service, I will arrange to go to the doctor a little early, the cost is much less" - Mr. Tien shared.
According to Vietnam Social Security, in the first 6 months of 2025, in the context of facing many difficulties, the development of social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance participants continued to grow compared to the same period in 2024.
In particular, the coverage of health insurance is basically completed according to the roadmap set out in the Resolutions and documents of the Central, the National Assembly and the Government.
In 2002, when Vietnam Social Insurance was assigned to organize and implement both social insurance and health insurance policies at the same time, the whole country only had about 13.03 million people participating in health insurance.
Sharing with Lao Dong reporter, a representative of Vietnam Social Insurance said: After more than 20 years of directly organizing and implementing health insurance policies, Vietnam Social Insurance has made efforts and persistently implemented many solutions to increase the rate of people enjoying humane and superior health insurance policies of our Party and State.
By the end of June 2025, the whole country has more than 91.25 million people (excluding the armed forces) with health insurance cards for health care. This is a solid money creation result that helps Vietnam soon achieve the goal of universal health insurance; while according to statistics, some countries with developed economies will take more than 40 years to achieve this goal.
Health insurance benefits expand with nearly 96 million visits
The number of people receiving health insurance treatment and the number of expenses from the health insurance fund are continuously increasing. People's health insurance medical examination and treatment benefits continue to be expanded, especially according to the provisions of the 2024 Health Insurance Law.
According to statistics from Vietnam Social Security, since the Health Insurance Law No. 25/2008/QH12 took effect from 2009 to the end of 2024, the whole country has had over 2,120 million people receiving health insurance treatment; the Health Insurance Fund paid nearly 1 million billion VND for health insurance treatment.
In the first 6 months of 2025, the whole country had more than 95.59 million health insurance-covered medical examinations at health insurance-covered medical examination and treatment facilities, an increase of about 8.44% compared to the first 6 months of 2024. The estimated number of health insurance treatment spending at health insurance treatment facilities is more than 76.1 trillion VND, an increase of about 14.8% over the first 6 months of 2024.
"The increase in the number of people participating in health insurance, as well as the increase in the number of health insurance-covered medical examinations nationwide, shows that the health insurance policy has become a significant financial source contributing to the state budget in the work of effectively protecting and caring for people's health.
In particular, in the context of increasing health service prices, especially the cost of treatment for chronic diseases, serious diseases... the role of health insurance policies is becoming more practical and important for people than ever" - a representative of Vietnam Social Security shared.
In fact, many cases of patients with serious illnesses or long-term treatment with treatment costs of up to hundreds of millions of VND, even billions of VND have been paid by the health insurance fund. Thanks to that, it has helped patients and their families reduce the financial burden to continue to treat with peace of mind and overcome difficulties.
For example, a patient born in 2019 (old Hai Duong province) was paid the highest amount in 2024 by the health insurance fund of more than 4.4 billion VND after being diagnosed with the main disease of "Hemorrhage, diabetes, kidney failure".
"With the cost of participating in health insurance of less than 1 million VND/year, the cost of medical examination and treatment paid by the health insurance fund not only helps patients feel secure in long-term treatment, access to specific drugs and modern medical techniques, improve treatment effectiveness; but also contributes to helping patients and their families reduce the financial burden, reduce the risk of falling into "deficiency" due to treatment" - Dr. Nguyen Duc Hoa - Deputy Director of Vietnam Social Insurance (VSSH) commented.
