title: Patterns of Health Expenditures and Financial Protections in Vietnam 1992-2012.
abstract: Health financing has been considered as an important building block of a health system and has a key role in promoting universal health coverage in the Vietnam. This paper aims to describe the pattern of health expenditure, including total health expenditure and composition of health expenditure, over the last two decades in Vietnam. The paper mainly uses the data from Vietnam National Health Account and Vietnam Living Standards Survey. We also included data from other relevant published literature, reports and statistics about health care expenditure in Vietnam. The per capita health expenditure in Vietnam increased from US$ 14 in 1995 to US$ 86 in 2012. The total health expenditure as a share of GDP also rose from 5.2% in 1995 to 6.9% in 2012. Public health expenditure as percentage of government expenditure rose from 7.4% in 1995 to nearly 10% in 2012. The coverage of health insurance went up from 10% in 1995 to 68.5% in 2012. However, health financing in Vietnam was depending on private expenditures (57.4% in 2012). As a result, the proportion of households with catastrophic expenditure in 2012 was 4.2%. The rate of impoverishment in 2012 was 2.5%. To ensure equity and efficient goal of health system, policy actions for containing the health care out-of-pocket payments and their poverty impacts are urgently needed in Vietnam.
authors.affiliation: Hanoi School of Public Health & Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Van Minh
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Hoang
authors.affiliation: LEE Jong-wook Center for Global Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Juhwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Center for Health System Research, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Tuan Anh
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Health, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Thi Giang Huong
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Cabinet Office, Ministry of Health, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Anh Duc
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Ngoc Hoat
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Luu
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization Office in Vietnam, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Thi Kim Phuong
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics*; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D061889:Healthcare Financing; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends*; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Health Expenditure; Health Financing; Out-of-pocket Household Payment; Vietnam