Experts from the VietnamPartnership for Actions in Health Equity (PAHE) agreed that to movetowards universal health coverage, the priority intervention should befocused on the expansion of health insurance targeting otherdisadvantaged people beyond just the poor alone, to include children,ethnic minority people, and near-poor workers and farmers.
Additionally, the country should improve the quality of health careservices which are needed by every person, with particular attentiongiven to closing the gap for disadvantaged groups such as women andthose living in rural areas.
Integrated interventions should beapplied with participation from different sectors, including women'sempowerment, education, rural development and income generatingactivities.
The recommendations were revealed after PAHEcompleted its second Vietnam Health Watch Report (VHWR), which providesan assessment of the patterns and magnitudes of the health equitysituation in the country. The first report was completed in late 2011providing an overview of the country's situation.
The secondVHWR analyses the data from several recent national representativepopulation-based surveys such as the Vietnam Living Standard Survey 2008and 2010, the Global Adult Tobacco Use Surveys 2010 and the SurveyAssessment of Vietnamese Youth 2010.
The analysis showed thatthere still exist socio-economic inequities in different aspects ofhealth at different degrees, including inequity by gender, age,education, ethnicity, economic status and place of residence.
According to the research, the age of older mothers, mothers with loweducation levels, those from ethnic minorities and those with lowerliving standards and living in rural areas create a higher risk of childmortality.
Only one child died out of the more than 1,600 bornby mothers aged between 15-19 years old, whereas 229 children died outof those children born by women aged between 45-49. The research alsorevealed that women of these groups have less access to obstetric care.
More than 60 percent of the women from ethnic minoritiesdeliver their babies at medical stations, whereas the rate for women inKinh group is nearly 99 percent.
PAHE is a group of Vietnameseexperts and researchers from non-governmental organisations, includingthe Institute for Social Development Studies, the Centre for CreativeInitiative in Health and Population and the Hanoi Medical University.-VNA
Vietnam successfully eliminates trachoma: WHO
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on October 21 that Vietnam has eliminated trachoma, a contagious, bacterial disease that may eventually lead to blindness.
