Vietnam health fund covers $82m for 4 million visits

Schoolchildren accounted for $69.3m whilst university beneficiaries received $12.9m.

Vietam’s Health Insurance Fund covered nearly $82.2m (VND2.145t) in medical examination and treatment costs for pupils and university students in the first six months of 2026, according to Vietam Social Security.

During the period, pupils made 3,527,625 medical visits covered by health insurance, down 8.3% year-on-year (YoY), or 319,697 visits, from the first six months of 2025. 

Health insurance spending for pupils reached $69.3m (VND1,807.2b), up 1% YoY, or $690,207 (VND18b).
University students recorded 565,345 health insurance-covered medical visits in the first half of 2026, an increase of 12.4% YoY, or 62,313 visits, from the same period last year. 

Spending on their treatment rose 18.9% YoY to $12.9m (VND337.4b), an increase of $2.1m (VND53.6b).

Overall, the fund covered more than 4.09m medical visits for pupils and university students during the six-month period.

In 2025, pupils recorded 8,045,106 health insurance-covered visits, up 5.4% from 2024. Spending on their medical care rose 16% YoY to $150.5m (VND3,926.6b).

For university students, the number of covered visits reached 1,131,180 in 2025, up 21.7% YoY. Health insurance expenditure for this group increased 25.9% YoY to $25.5m (VND664.1b).

Vietnam Social Security also reported several cases in which the fund covered treatment costs of more than $38,300 (VND1b) for individual patients. 

These included a pupil born in 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City who received $52,488 (VND1.369b) for treatment of a coagulation disorder and heart failure, and a pupil born in 2015 in Hanoi whose treatment for sepsis and post-operative complications cost $44,170 (VND1.152b).

A university student born in 2007 in Phu Tho Province also had $40,029 (VND1.044b) in treatment costs covered for cardiac arrhythmia.

The fund has also paid substantial treatment costs for patients with serious conditions including cerebral haemorrhage, acute leukaemia, systemic lupus erythematosus, acute myocarditis, epilepsy and bone marrow failure. 

In some other cases, health insurance-covered treatment costs ranged from more than $21,470 (VND560m) to nearly $35,852 (VND935m).

($1.00 = VND26,084)