Doctors of a health post in Ciudad Ho Chi Minh examine and record health information from the elderly at home – Photo: Tien Quoc
Sr. DAO XUAN CO (Director del Hospital Bach Mai)
The Politburó resolution project on the advances in public health care, which satisfy the requirements of national development in the new era, establishes the objective that from 2026, each person will receive free periodic health controls at least once a year or free professional exams at least once a year.
What are the options to achieve it?
Specific regulations on periodic health controls are needed
Table of Contents
- Specific regulations on periodic health controls are needed
- Introduce health data in electronic medical records
- The Ministry of Health will prepare a list of scope of specific exams.
- Bring 1,000 doctors to the medical post
- How to reduce pocket spending in medical care
- Take care of people’s health from a new perspective
- Strengthening of primary health care capacity
When talking with Tuoi Tre, who was invited to comment on the resolution project, the delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Hung Yen) emphasized that the objective that each citizen has a periodic health checkup once a year from 2026 is a very human and necessary policy.
This guarantees the health of all people, pointing to a better and better health care for the community.
According to Mrs. Thu, Secretary General to Lam has emphasized the orientation towards this objective in many meetings.
However, the delegate Thu said that the project adds “or free professional exams at least once a year”, which is not clear and inadvertently reduces humanity and the urgency of periodic health controls for people, because the conjunction “or” means that only one of the two contents is carried out.
Periodic medical checkups allow people to proactively evaluate their current status, prevent, detect and diagnose early diseases, helping the local health sector to determine the structure of diseases in their locality, and thus build a strategy to develop the health sector and provide better medical care to the population.
“Therefore, I propose that the objective is that each person only undergoes a periodic health check once a year,” said Mrs. Thu.
Mrs. Thu also pointed out that to effectively implement this objective, the Ministry of Health needs to have regulations on periodic health controls with parachlinic indications that must be carried out.
Because for people at risk, basic tests can make an early diagnosis, helping to prevent serious diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetes …
Even some genetic diseases can be prevented very early, such as talasmia …
By providing such a specific list of exams, you can also calculate the amount of money needed to pay each exam and multiply it by the total number of people who do it, which helps evaluate the financial impact of the implementation of this policy.
It is important to strengthen the ability of primary health care establishments in terms of facilities, equipment and human resources to be able to carry out health controls.
In particular, there should be policies to attract and train high quality human resources for the health sector, to complement the base level, especially in remote, isolated and difficult areas.
In addition to that, there are salary and subsidy policies really good for medical personnel in order to retain them to perform their functions at the base level.
People undergo a medical check -up at the Bach Mai hospital (Hanoi) – Photo: Nguyen Khanh
Introduce health data in electronic medical records
The delegate Thu added that currently, according to the Government Project 06, when 100% of the people have a level 2 identification, Vneid will have information from the electronic health book, so it is necessary to activate and integrate data information about the health status of people.
Therefore, for periodic health controls to be effective, it is necessary to update the data on the results of the exams carried out by medical centers in the Electronic Health Book in Vneid.
In addition to that, these data will be licensed by the Management Police Agency Vneid to local health agencies to access them to receive them, administer them, analyze, evaluate them, divide them into groups of diseases and the number of infected people.
For example, in this town, many people suffer from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, digestive diseases … or in another town, many people suffer from blood pressure diseases, other chronic and acute diseases with abnormal indices …
This helps to filter and provide instructions to health agencies so that appropriate management and health care for people can easily plan and direct.
At the same time, this also helps detect groups of people with high risk of diseases so that health authorities can recommend periodic health controls, even every 6 months.
The delegate also emphasized that there are many reasons why people are reluctant to make regular health checks in recent times, including lack of habit, lack of confidence in primary health care or fear of high costs …
Therefore, when implementing this objective, it is necessary to make a strong propaganda for people to understand the meaning of humanity and social security.
At the same time, Mrs. Thu suggested that the specific task of carrying out periodic medical checks to the population is assigned to the popular committee at the communal level. Since the communal level is the closest place to the population, it clearly knows the list of people in the area and promotes and implements support for periodic medical check -ups.
The elders in Ciudad Ho Chi Minh receive medical attention at home from doctors – Photo: Tien Quoc
The Ministry of Health will prepare a list of scope of specific exams.
By sharing this policy, Mrs. Tran Thi Trang, director of the Department of Health Insurance (Ministry of Health), said that this is a social security policy objective, in which health insurance (SI) must be taken as a basis.
Regarding the free medical check policy, it is expected that it will be implemented from 2026.
According to the estimate of Mrs. Trang, the average cost of an exam is 300,000 Vnd with basic criteria of biochemistry exam, hemogram, chest radiography, possibly ultrasound …
The Ministry of Health will review and prepare a specific list of the scope and criteria of periodic health exams to ensure that professional requirements are met, are appropriate for subjects who need exam and guarantee the balance of the health insurance fund and the state budget.
In particular, this policy includes the detection and early diagnosis of diseases, which helps detect them at an early stage in local health centers, thus reducing subsequent treatment costs. People will have a medical history for life, from pregnancy to old age.
Mr. Dao Xuan Co, director of the Bach Mai Hospital, also emphasized that to achieve the objective, good preparation is necessary in terms of training and human resources. Therefore, it is necessary to have a training strategy and a mechanism to recruit the local population, train it and then send it back to serve its homeland.
The Training Program for Primary Health Care also needs to adjust. Primary health care doctors must have integral training, with knowledge about births, emergency care in femur fractures, myocardial infarctions, vaccination, basic dental care and treatment of common diseases.
While it does not need to be as specialized as the central level, it must be good in many aspects to meet people’s initial needs.
Second, treatment policy and working conditions. There must be appropriate policies so that doctors can work peacefully in the center. Working conditions, essential equipment and medicines must also be guaranteed.
Finally, apply the digital transformation, create electronic clinical records and connect electronic medical records of neighborhoods and communes to the provinces and central levels.
This helps at the higher level to consult, direct to the lower level and guide the treatment remotely, which reduces the load at the higher level and allows people to enjoy better services at the local level.
Mrs. Tran Thi Trang also said that in addition to human resources, it is necessary to ensure the capacity of the health system; It is necessary to improve the quality of services, especially the primary health care and preventive medicine, to ensure that people enjoy the most convenient services in their place of residence and work.
Community health positions that wish to provide regular medical check -ups and basic general medical care must have an investment equivalent to that of a general clinic; They must have human resources and equipment, and must be strengthened. The state budget must guarantee these activities.
In addition, the communal health post must have a doctor who performs biochemical exams, prescribes paraclinic services, detects some basic diseases and provides primary health care for people at the general level.
Therefore, there must be at least 3 to 5 general doctors in each communal health position. At the same time, there must be a network of family doctors who participate from the base, “said Mrs. Trang.
Bring 1,000 doctors to the medical post
At the meeting on the Politburo resolution project on July 8, the Vice Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, said the project also establishes the objective that in the five years from 2025 to 2030, every year at least 1,000 doctors will be sent to work for a limited period in grassroots health centers.
The pocket expense of households in health care is reduced to 30% and electronic medical records are established to manage health throughout life …
The vision for 2045 is to have health indicators of the people and indexes of coverage of essential health services equivalent to those of developed countries; an average life expectancy of people who exceed 80 years and a number of years of increasing health; and a height, physical strength and average size of young people equivalent to those of countries with the same level of development.
How to reduce pocket spending in medical care
To achieve the target of free hospitalization for all, huge resources are needed. According to estimates from the Ministry of Health, just provide regular medical check -ups to about 84 million people will require 25 billion additional dongs per year.
Not to mention disease detection packages and basic services at the communal level; The expansion of health insurance support for students, the elderly, disabled and almost poor people …
“This resource will provide three pillars: the health insurance fund, the state budget and a part of the popular contributions.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health proposed a mechanism to deduce a part of the special consumption tax of alcohol, beer, tobacco and soft drinks to complement the medical examinations and treatments, a model that has been applied in many countries.
Another problem is that the nominal value of medical insurance cards in Vietnam remains low: it currently represents 4.5 % of the base salary, while the law allows up to 6 %. The proposed increase in medical insurance premiums is implemented according to a road map to guarantee the possibility of expanding the benefits and scope of payments, said Mrs. Trang.
In addition, one of the objectives of the resolution is to reduce pocket spending in medical care. In relation to this issue, Mrs. Trang said that medical insurance must expand the scope of payments, increase the payment rate of medications and medical supplies, and high technology.
First, for the group of serious patients, those with serious diseases and high treatment costs. At the same time, the Ministry of Health gradually reduces the copayment, which is currently quite high compared to international standards.
In Vietnam, the usual copayment rate is 20% or 5% (depending on the group), while in Thailand it is only 12% and in Singapore is 24.7%.
For children from 7 to 16, the current level of medical insurance is still conditional. In the future, the benefits of this group will be expanded. In addition, the Ministry of Health will add more types of free vaccines within the framework of the National Expanded Immunization Program.
All these policies seek to eliminate all basic medical costs and minimize pocket spending. This is the approach to free hospital care.
President of the Central Committee of the Front of the Homeland of Vietnam do van Chien:
Take care of people’s health from a new perspective
In terms of social security, in addition to the temporary and deteriorated housing elimination program, the Politburo and the Secretariat decided to exempt all students from the Garden of Infants to high school and test a program of places with conditions with conditions to use the budget to take care of students lunch.
More recently, the Politburo and the Secretary General to Lam decided to assign the budget to focus on investment in communes in border areas to build internships and semi -internard so that children of ethnic minorities can have the opportunity to study.
We invest in education and health for people from a very new perspective, not how many health cards or central and local hospitals, but how many doctors for people.
That is important, but more important is how people control and examine their health during the year.
In order for people to have free periodic health check -ups from 2026, it is necessary to make careful preparations from now on – Photo: Nguyen Khanh
Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan (HCMC):
Strengthening of primary health care capacity
Regular health checks will help people detect diseases early, especially chronicles, thus providing timely treatment and improving, prolonging healthy life.
To implement this effectively, the most important thing is to strengthen health care capacity at the base level, especially health positions and clinics located in the new communes.
In addition to modernizing the infrastructure system and adding equipment and machinery, it is necessary to have specific policies to train and complement high quality medical resources to guarantee compliance with the requirements of the facilities.
For rural, remote and isolated areas, there must be specific policies to support and develop primary health care in terms of infrastructure and human resources.
In addition, in many places, especially in disadvantaged areas, people still have the mentality of avoiding periodic reviews. For fear of cost, some even think that if they go to the doctor and discover any disease, they will have to pay a fortune for treatment.
Therefore, it is necessary to propaganda so that people clearly see that this periodic exam is a very good policy and that it is necessary to participate fully to detect diseases early and treat them quickly.
Along with this, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda and have support policies to increase the universal coverage rate of health insurance.
Increasing the health insurance coverage rate will introduce simple policies to transfer to the people who are diagnosed with a disease of regular health controls to medical centers for timely treatment and people will also worry less about treatment costs because insurance will cover a large part.
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