A lifeline for patients
As healthcare costs continue to rise, particularly for serious illnesses, chronic diseases, and life-threatening conditions requiring prolonged treatment, health insurance has increasingly demonstrated its role as a "lifeline", helping patients and their families overcome financial burdens.
For many low-income households, especially in rural and mountainous areas, the cost of major surgery or prolonged intensive care treatment often exceed their financial capacity. Without health insurance, many families could face severe financial hardship or even fall back into poverty because of medical expenses.
As one of the pioneering healthcare facilities to replace physical health insurance cards with citizen identity cards for medical treatment, Sai Gon Tam Ky General Hospital, located in Ban Thach Ward, Da Nang City, now applies this method for most patients. Initially, many patients were unfamiliar with the integration of health insurance information into their citizen identity cards and found the process confusing. However, with guidance from healthcare staff, medical examinations and treatment have become increasingly convenient.
Vo Thi Thuy Dung, a resident of Ban Thach Ward, shared that instead of carrying her health insurance card and various identity documents when visiting Sai Gon Tam Ky General Hospital, she now only needs to bring her citizen identity card or a smartphone with the VssID application installed. Within just a few minutes, she can complete the registration procedures for health insurance-covered medical treatment.
"I often suffer from poor health and have to visit the hospital regularly for check-ups and treatment. Without health insurance, the costs would be enormous. My health insurance card is truly a lifeline whenever I need medical care," Dung said.
Each day, Sai Gon Tam Ky General Hospital receives an average of 300 patients using health insurance for medical examinations and treatment, making up the majority of its patients. This reflects the public's confidence both in the health insurance policy and in the quality of the hospital's healthcare services.
Doctor Tran Quang Dat, Specialist Level II and Professional Director of Sai Gon Tam Ky General Hospital, said that health insurance is one of the Party's and the State's most important social security policies, carrying profound humanitarian significance and ensuring healthcare for every citizen. In recent years, the health insurance policy has become an essential source of support, enabling millions of people to access quality healthcare services while reducing treatment costs, particularly for patients suffering from serious illnesses, chronic diseases, or conditions requiring long-term treatment.
"At Sai Gon Tam Ky General Hospital, we continuously improve patient reception procedures, reduce waiting times, enhance professional standards, and actively apply digital technologies in healthcare services. One of the major advances in the healthcare sector's digital transformation has been the introduction of chip-based citizen identity cards, together with the VNeID and VssID applications, for patients accessing health insurance-covered medical services," Doctor Tran Quang Dat said.
Officially launched in November 2020, the VssID – digital social insurance application for mobile devices has been recognised as a major breakthrough in the digital transformation of Viet Nam's social insurance system. In addition to providing users with access to their health insurance treatment history, the application enables them to monitor their social insurance participation records. As a result, citizens and employees can clearly track their entitled benefits while also monitoring employers' contributions to social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance, thereby promoting the public disclosure and transparency of information, and safeguarding the legitimate rights of social insurance participants.
A "shield" protecting people against the risks of illness
In practice, the health insurance fund has increasingly demonstrated its important role within the social security system. Numerous patients with severe illnesses and extremely high treatment costs have received health insurance payments amounting to billions of VND.
According to Da Nang City Social Insurance, during 2025 and the first five months of 2026, the unit covered more than 10 million health insurance-funded medical consultations and treatments, with total payments of nearly 9 trillion VND. Many patients received exceptionally large reimbursements. Notable examples include a patient in Hoa Tien Commune, Da Nang City, suffering from hereditary Factor IX deficiency, whose treatment costs exceeding 1.5 billion VND were covered by the health insurance fund, and a patient from Quang Ngai Province with ischaemic cardiomyopathy who received almost 1.4 billion VND in health insurance payments.
As of May 31, 2026, the city had 2,684,833 health insurance participants, representing an increase of 2.67% compared with the same period in 2025 and achieving 98.48% of the target assigned by Viet Nam Social Insurance. Health insurance coverage reached approximately 92% of the population.
According to Da Nang City Social Insurance, from July 1, 2026, several new provisions under the 2024 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Health Insurance, together with its implementing regulations, will officially come into force. Among the most significant changes are expanded health insurance benefits for patients who seek medical treatment at healthcare facilities other than those where they originally registered. Health insurance participants who independently obtain outpatient treatment at designated primary and specialised healthcare facilities will be entitled to partial reimbursement from the health insurance fund within their benefit entitlements, thereby making healthcare services more accessible.
From July 1, 2026, the statutory base salary will increases to 2.53 million VND per month, resulting in a corresponding adjustment to household health insurance contributions. Other changes include revised co-payment rates for individuals who have participated continuously in health insurance for five years, adjustments to reimbursement levels for low-cost medical treatment, and revised payment rates for certain technical services, medical equipment, and direct reimbursement in specific cases.
These new provisions further expand the benefits available to health insurance participants, reduce the financial burden associated with medical treatment, and contribute to improving the effectiveness of the universal health insurance policy.
