The creation of a universal health insurance in Vietnam ; La création d'une assurance-maladie universelle au Vietnam

The study aims at examining the implementation process of public health insurance card in Vietnam. In order to accomplish the research aim, the study has five research objectives. First, this study analyzes the situation of the health insurance system in Vietnam, as well as the use of health insurance card among different population groups with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Second, the study examines the transparency of the health insurance card promotion run by the government. Literature review was conducted to address this objective. Third, stemming from the existing conflicts among different stakeholders, the study investigates motivations and actions of the stakeholders, including: governors, physicians, health insurance staff, and target beneficiaries. Target beneficiaries include people without health insurance. Fourth, the study explores the social negotiation strategies used by different stakeholders in order to implement health insurance. Last but not least, the study recommends strategies for health insurance regulation and management tailored to the Vietnamese context. Regarding methodology, this study adopts the bottom-up approach to investigate social conflicts by identifying action logic of the lowest group in the social hierarchy. The lowest group refers to the most disadvantaged group without public health insurance. The study examines needs, motivations, expectations, objectives, means, and strategies of people in this group which lead to their decision-making (purchasing voluntary health insurance or not). Furthermore, the study analyzes social interactions of stakeholders in this disadvantaged group, as well as their interactions with other stakeholders, such as governors, physicians, and health insurance staff. These interactions construct the health insurance system in Vietnam. Adopting this approach, the researcher applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study sample is representative of different social groups regarding policies of voluntary health insurance. ...