The Ministry of Health has proposed raising the minimum state support for health insurance (HI) contributions for high school students from 30% to 50%. This increase will require an additional $152 million (3.7 trillion VND) from the state budget.

Vu Nu Anh, Deputy Director of the Health Insurance Department (Ministry of Health), shared the proposal during a conference on March 27 to discuss new regulations and gather feedback on a draft decree detailing the implementation of amendments to the Health Insurance Law.

The draft decree is expected to be submitted to the government on May 15 and take effect from July 1, 2025, replacing Decrees No. 146/2018, No. 75/2023, and No. 02/2025.

Proposed increase from 30% to 50% in student HI support

Currently, students and university students pay a monthly HI contribution equivalent to 4.5% of the base salary. Of this amount, the state budget covers 30%, while the remaining 70% is paid by students and their families.

In recent years, many voters have proposed reducing or waiving HI contributions for students, arguing that the current rate is higher than that of family-based HI participation. They have called for allowing students to join family-based HI plans to ease the financial burden.

According to Nu Anh, when drafting the revised Health Insurance Law (effective from July 1, 2025, with some provisions effective from January 1, 2025), many National Assembly members recommended a more flexible approach to student HI contributions. In large families, when students receive only a 30% subsidy, their contributions exceed those made under family-based plans.

"For primary and secondary school students from grades 1 to 12, the government plans to allocate an additional $152 million to increase HI support from 30% to 50%. For university students - currently numbering about 2.8 million - the 30% support rate will remain unchanged," Nu Anh stated. The drafting committee has included this proposal in the upcoming submission to the government.

If the support rate is raised to 50%, students would only pay around $25 (631,800 VND) annually, equivalent to about $2.10 (53,000 VND) per month.

50% support proposed for rural health workers

The draft decree also proposes that the HI contribution for several other groups remains at 4.5% of the monthly base salary, as stipulated in Decree No. 146. These groups include:

Rural health workers and village midwives
Community-based security and order protection forces
Victims of post-war bombs and explosives
Recipients of honorary titles such as "People’s Artist" or "Meritorious Artist"

The Ministry of Health estimates that Vietnam has about 100,000 rural health workers and 1,600 village midwives, with around 665 also serving as rural health workers. This means about 950 individuals serve solely as midwives.

According to the Ministry’s calculations, to support the purchase of insurance cards at a 50% subsidy - based on a base salary of $98 (2.34 million VND) - the state budget would need to allocate a maximum of $1.9 billion (44.8 trillion VND) for these groups.

A representative from Vietnam Social Security reported that as of the end of 2024, more than 95.5 million people nationwide were participating in HI, achieving a coverage rate of 94.29%. Of these, 24% received state budget support (including students), while the largest group - 28% - comprised family-based participants.

In 2024, more than 183.7 million HI-covered medical visits were recorded nationwide, with over 7 million workers seeking treatment, averaging nearly 3.5 visits per person annually. Among social insurance fund participants, over 2.52 million individuals sought medical care, with an average of nearly 8 visits per person per year.

Vo Thu