Public health sector still suffers from money not being well spent

To deal with this, officials propose promoting health insurance although health insurance budget shortcomings last year have yet to be tackled. Health insurance funding last year ran at VND5,900 billion (US$347 million), while expenditure was VND7,680 ($451 million). The target of universal health insurance by 2010 will not be reached, since to date only 41 per cent of the population have health insurance.

However, Liem said that VUSTA had suggested the Government save more of its budget for health care services in the future, and reform the healthcare sector to enable better access for the poor.