“Socialization of Health Care” in Vietnam: What Is It and What Are Its Pros and Cons?

Does the More Educated Utilize More Health Care Services? Evidence from Vietnam Using a Regression Discontinuity Design

“…Some key public policies were implemented to inaugurate a new plan of action to govern Vietnam's health care system that was so-called "socialization of health care," for examples the application of user fee for public health providers in 1989, the introduction of health insurance in 1992, and the financial autonomy for selected public health care facilities in 2002 (Thanh et al, 2014). These policies increased the mobilization of resources for health care practices within the economy.…”

“…Vietnam has so far retained a two-sector health care system in which both public and private health sectors has worked together in providing medical care treaments for Vietnamese people (Tat & Barr, 2006;Thanh et al, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to emphasize the separation of health care utilization outcomes between public and private sectors when investigating health care utilization in Vietnam.…”

“…For instance, Sepehri et al (2006) find that health insurance increases the likelihood of hospital admission and prolongs patients' treament duration and this type of hospital-based treatment is completely inferred as an inpatient medical service. Moreover, Thanh et al (2014) emphasize that patients with health insurance are more likely to to be hospitalized and treated with inpatient services than patients without health insurance in Vietnam. With a recognization of an inpatient health care service as a better quality service type compared to an outpatient service, the finding in this study that citizens with health insurance because of higher schooling utilize more inpatient services is logically understandable.…”

Guest editorial

“…In Viet Nam, socialization refers to “all segments of society contributing” to some sphere of social life.” (London, 2010, p. 369). This idea of society contributing takes the form of users of services paying fees, primarily in healthcare (London, 2008; Thanh et al , 2014) and education (London, 2011; Anh et al , 2016), but it also extends to the cultural sector, where it is often interpreted as commoditization and commercialization[1]. This necessarily introduces a neoliberal element of competition and financialization to sectors where this was largely absent.…”

Expanding co-payment for methadone maintenance services in Vietnam: the importance of addressing health and socioeconomic inequalities

“…Those patients with HIV/AIDS were more likely to suffer from catastrophic health expenditure; meanwhile HIV-negative drug users might have more hope to prevent HIV infection that affect their WTP for the services [8, 14, 20, 23, 24]. Second, This prior study was conducted at HIV outpatient clinics instead of MMT clinics across levels of health administration of the Vietnamese health system [25, 26]. Consequently, the implication of previous research findings is limited.…”