Report sees need for higher medical fees

17:34' 21/04/2008 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – A public healthcare report to the National Assembly's Standing Committee has called on the Government to increase hospital fees to ensure the smooth operation of healthcare units during a committee discussion yesterday.
According to a report by Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Trieu, the nation's hospitals and healthcare units could hardly operate with the income from their current hospital fees.
These fees, which were set up by the Government in 1995, are becoming increasingly insufficient. And market prices and salaries have both increased several times over the years.
Currently, in large hospitals like Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City and Viet Duc and Bach Mai hospitals in Hanoi, hospital fees and healthcare insurance fees account for 80 to 90% of the hospitals' expenses.
Furthermore, they must spend part of this income on increased staff salaries, which places more financial pressure on them. Thus, investments, maintenance and new healthcare equipment cannot be given the priority they deserve.
"We should consider hospital fees as the price of healthcare service. Hospital fees should be sufficiently calculated to ensure better operational spending for hospitals and healthcare units," said Trieu.
He suggested the Government should apply new hospital fees, which would be clearly identified. Parts which were provided by the Government's budget would not be counted into the hospital fees, but parts that the hospitals had to cover would be taken into account.
Welfare beneficiaries, poor people and children under six could use healthcare services with insurance paid through the Government's budget. Meanwhile, those with higher salaries would have to pay all hospital fees.
The report also indicated an urgent need to adjust the imbalance in the receipts and expenses of the healthcare insurance fund. For over 15 years, most patients only purchased voluntary healthcare insurance when they fell sick.
In 2006, the fund's deficit was VND1.1tril (US$70mil), the figure rose up to VND1.3tril in 2007 ($85mil). It was predicted that this year's figure could reach as high as VND2.5tril ($156mil).
According to Truong Thi Mai, chairperson of the National Assembly's Committee for Social Issues, the Government was now carrying out measures to adjust hospital fees in accordance with the current situation. In the first stage, hospital fees would be calculated adequately to ensure operations.
In the second stage, full hospital fees would be applied. This would be combined with the application of providing healthcare insurance for every citizen. Public hospitals would then control human resources, salaries, recruitment and the purchasing of all equipment and other facilities.