Dong Nai subsidizes health insurance premiums for over 817,700 beneficiaries

On June 16, the Dong Nai Department of Health (DoH) said Dong Nai City had recently rolled out the 2024 Law on Health Insurance and the Government's Decree No. 188/2025/ND-CP, which provides detailed regulations and implementation guidance for several articles of the law, in a timely and coordinated manner. In addition to support from the central budget, the People's Council of Dong Nai province (now Dong Nai City) issued Resolution No. 36/2025/NQ-HDND on December 10, 2025, providing additional subsidies for health insurance premiums for various groups during the 2026-2030 period.

Residents facing hardship in Dong Nai City receive health insurance cards. Photo: Hanh Dung

To date, the city has more than 4.1 million people participating in health insurance, achieving a coverage rate of 91.6% of its population. Of these, more than 817,700 people receive state budget support for health insurance premiums. Students account for the largest group, with more than 783,000 people, followed by more than 24,400 people from households with average living standards engaged in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and salt production; more than 4,600 members of grassroots security and order protection forces; more than 3,100 people from near-poor households; more than 2,300 non-specialized workers in villages and residential groups; and 44 village health workers and village midwives.

Nguyen Van Binh, Deputy Director of the DoH, said that the policy for health insurance subsidies has enabled vulnerable groups to access medical services more easily, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction, limiting the risk of falling back into poverty due to medical expenses, and improving residents' quality of life. However, the current rate of health insurance coverage remains 4.7% lower than the target set by the Dong Nai City People's Council.

One of the reasons identified is that health insurance premiums for school and university students, as well as for households with average living standards, remain relatively high compared with many households' ability to pay. In addition, adjustments to areas designated as ethnic minority and mountainous regions have meant that the same support policies no longer cover some groups as before.

Therefore, the DoH has proposed that the Ministry of Health consider adding households that have recently escaped poverty to the group eligible for health insurance premium subsidies from the state budget, with a 70% subsidy for 24 months from the date they are officially recognized as having escaped poverty. It has also proposed raising health insurance subsidies for school and university students from 50% to 70%, and increasing subsidies for households with average living standards engaged in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and salt production from 30% to 70%.

Notably, the DoH also recommended increasing the subsidies for health insurance premiums from 70% to 100% for ethnic minorities living in communes that are no longer classified as difficult or extremely difficult areas. This proposal aims to help maintain and expand health insurance coverage, ensure people's right to healthcare, and advance toward universal health insurance coverage in the coming period.

By Hanh Dung – Translated by Minh Hong, Minho