New Government directive on "free hospital fees for all"

(Dan Tri) - The Government requested the Ministry of Health to develop a project to gradually implement the policy of exempting hospital fees in 2028, first of all for social policy beneficiaries, disadvantaged people, low-income people...

The Government has just issued Resolution 282 promulgating the Action Program to implement Resolution 72 of the Politburo on a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health (Program).

The Government first requires ministries, branches and localities to strongly innovate their thinking and actions in leading, directing and organizing the implementation of public health care work.

The Government requires ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, and People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to strongly innovate thinking and action in leading, directing, and organizing the implementation of public health care work.

Medical staff work at the Emergency Department of a public hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Hoang Le).

In particular, the Ministry of Education and Training is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Health, ministries, branches, and localities to develop a Project/Program to incorporate health education content into educational programs suitable for all levels and grades; and to implement health care, physical education, and school nutrition activities at educational institutions.

This will be completed in the third quarter of 2026 and implemented regularly, as required by the Government.

The next important task that the Government has thoroughly grasped is to perfect the institution, focus on improving the capacity of the health system, especially preventive medicine, primary health care, and promote the strengths of traditional medicine.

In particular, the Ministry of Health is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance, ministries, branches and localities to develop a Resolution of the National Assembly on the National Target Program on health care, population and development for the period 2026-2035, to be completed in 2026. During this time, the Ministry also needs to develop a Government Decree on vaccination.

Along with that, the Government requested the Ministry of Health to preside over and coordinate in continuing to reorganize and transfer a number of hospitals under the Ministry of Health to provincial management.

The Ministry of Health manages a number of specialized, high-tech, leading hospitals to carry out the tasks of professional guidance, quality human resource training, scientific research, technology transfer, coordination of disease prevention and control, public health emergencies, natural disasters, catastrophes, and health security. The time to complete this task, according to the Government's request, is from 2025 to 2030.

Along with that, the Government directs the step-by-step implementation of the hospital fee exemption policy, first of all for social policy beneficiaries, the disadvantaged, and low-income people.

Specifically, the Government believes that it is necessary to prioritize the arrangement and ensure the annual increase in State budget expenditure for the health sector, ensuring the State budget for regular expenditure and investment expenditure for primary health care and preventive health care.

The Government also directed the allocation of the state budget to invest in facilities and medical equipment for the protection, care and improvement of people's health, especially in difficult and extremely difficult areas, border areas, islands, etc.

From 2026, the Government requires coordination between periodic health check-ups, free screening, health check-ups for students; occupational health check-ups, health check-ups for workers and health insurance-covered medical examination and treatment for free medical examination; complete the creation of electronic health books for all people.

The Ministry of Health is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance, ministries, branches and localities to develop a project to gradually implement the policy of exempting hospital fees, first of all for social policy beneficiaries, disadvantaged people, low-income people and some other priority subjects within the scope of health insurance benefits according to the roadmap. The Government noted that this should be completed by 2028.

The Ministry of Health is also assigned to develop a Government Decree to pilot health insurance coverage for a number of disease prevention services, diagnosis, and early treatment of a number of diseases and priority subjects according to a roadmap, to be completed in 2027.

The Government also encourages the development of commercial health insurance; pilot studies, diversification of health insurance packages, supplementary health insurance according to people's needs, linking health insurance with commercial health insurance.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/chi-dao-moi-cua-chinh-phu-trong-viec-mien-vien-phi-toan-dan-20250916065323429.htm