Healthcare services will be more expensive following the decision to hike the price of treatments at state-owned hospitals in March and July.
Healthcare services to be more expensive
The regulations were issued by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance. Starting from March, fees will be raised based on costs including prices for medicines, and equipment, electricity and water use. From July, the fees will be raised for second time to include doctor salaries and bonuses.
Medical consultations will now be raised from VND7,000-200,000 (30 cents to US$9.50) to VND29,000-200,000 in July. Bed charges will increase from VND31,000-354,000 to VND108,000-677,000.
According to Nguyen Nam Lien, official from Health Ministry, the state will no longer subsidise health care, instead, the money will only support people with health insurances.
People who have 95 or 80 percent insurance coverage will be slightly affected while 25 percent of Vietnamese who do not have health insurances will be hardest hit.
