People’s decision to use medical insurance in Vietnam

• Main Authors: Phan Đình Khôi, Phạm Minh Ngọc, Nguyễn Thị Lương, Nguyễn Thị Kim Phượng
• Format: Article
• Language: Vietnamese
• Published: TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH 2020-06-01
• Series: Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh - Kinh tế và Quản trị kinh doanh
• Subjects: bảo hiểm y tế; khám chữa bệnh vhlss; việt nam
• Online Access: https://journalofscience.ou.edu.vn/index.php/econ-vi/article/view/502
• ISSN: 2734-9306; 2734-9578

Decision to use medical insurance for health care attracts macro-policy attention as a majority of population stays in the labor force in Vietnam. Although, sound understaing of people’s decision to use medical insurance for health care based on demographics nationwide is limited. This paper applying a probit model and VHLSS 2012 (Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey in 2012) to explain the people’s decision to use medical insurance for health care. The result showed that there is no difference in the decision of using the medical insurance between the Kinh and other ethnic groups, as well as between men and women. Besides, people who were poor, living in urban areas, elderly or seriously ill tend to use medical insurance more often than others. Some recommendations to overcome limited access and limited usage of medical insurance for health care include: improving medical facilities at lower levels of the health care system; encouraging diversification of health insurance products in order to further diversify and professionalize distribution channels of health insurance; applying information technology in managing, supervising and developing health care insurance products; shifting form traditional based health care insurance to online health insurance; and providing online registration system for health insurance users.