The Ministry of Health has convened a national conference tasked with enhancing the quality and efficiency of Health Insurance (HI) operations within the traditional medicine sector. The technical session evaluated current reimbursement parameters and formulated strategic policy adjustments for the upcoming operational phase. Data disclosed during the forum indicates that traditional medicine expenditures financed by the national health insurance fund remain disproportionately low compared to modern pharmaceuticals, legally necessitating structural expansions of approved lists and administrative updates to optimize patient access, particularly for the expanding elderly demographic.
The documented financial profiles, operational constraints, and strategic expansion blueprints for traditional medicine include:
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Underwhelming Proportions in Insurance Reimbursements: According to certified fiscal data from 2024, traditional medicine costs covered by the health insurance fund reached over 3.1 trillion VND, capturing a nominal 5.42% of total national drug expenditures. This baseline metrics trails significantly behind the mandatory targets established under the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1893/QĐ-TTg, which directed the traditional and herbal medicine reimbursement ratio to hit a minimum of 20% in 2025 and scale to 30% by 2030. While modern Western medicine features a heavily commercialized portfolio of over 1,000 active ingredients and 59 radiopharmaceuticals, the traditional category is restricted to 229 herbal/oriental drug groups and 349 prepared traditional medicinal ingredients.
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Regulatory Stagnation and Administrative Bottlenecks: Ths. Tran Thi Trang, Director of the Health Insurance Department under the Ministry of Health, noted that ongoing claims processing faces significant hurdles due to non-standardized terminology regarding medicinal raw materials. Furthermore, the master traditional drug reimbursement registry has not undergone a comprehensive revision since its initial publication back in 2015, inducing structural gaps.
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Proposed Direct Access and Referral Simplification: To mitigate administrative burdens on patients — particularly geriatric cohorts requiring extended long-term rehabilitation and targeted clinical attention — delegates proposed the formulation of a specialized registry defining specific medical conditions eligible for direct treatment at advanced traditional medicine centers. Concurrently, the committee recommended engineering a cross-provincial direct-access mechanism enabling elderly citizens to seek care directly at basic and advanced traditional medicine hospitals without navigating complex conventional transfer channels. The initiative directly reinforces the strategic directive delivered by General Secretary and President To Lam on May 20, 2026, which mandated a shift from reactive treatment thinking to holistic health management while fully integrating traditional medicine into local communities.
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Technical Verification of 94 Novel Drug Profiles: The Health Insurance Department confirmed it has initiated comprehensive clinical and economic reviews for 94 proposed traditional drugs and 5 additional medicinal ingredients for prospective inclusion in the national insurance schedule. The evaluation pipeline prioritizes standardized traditional and herbal products manufactured via modern technological platforms, backed by peer-reviewed research data and methodical clinical trials. Regulatory leadership committed to optimizing market pathways for high-quality domestic formulations to systematically support local cultivation zones and minimize reliance on imported pharmaceuticals, while parallelly adapting state procurement and bidding policies to streamline drug availability at grassroots medical outposts.