Ho Chi Minh City is home to about 30 percent of all patients on HIV treatment in Vietnam. As international donor funding for HIV treatment will mostly end this year, in order to maintain treatment for these individuals, the city must quickly pivot funding to domestic sources. To help address this situation, the USAID Sustainable HIV and Tuberculosis Response from Technical Assistance project worked with site staff and provincial officials to quantify and procure drugs, develop health information systems, and educate clinicians and patients about social health insurance and HIV. As of June 29, all ten sites supported by USAID in Ho Chi Minh City have been providing social health insurance-covered HIV treatment to patients with valid social health insurance cards.

So What? As the use of social health insurance accelerates at these sites, more than 18,000 patients can have their HIV treatment costs primarily covered through domestic financing. This will take Vietnam one step further in achieving self-reliance in the health sector.