In 2013, Vietnam determined that Social Health Insurance (SHI) was the single most important financing mechanism for the long-term sustainability of its HIV/AIDS response. Since then, USAID has been working closely with the Vietnamese government to transition financing the country’s HIV response from donors to SHI. This has resulted in revision of the SHI Law to include funding for HIV treatment and more than 80% of all HIV clinics are now reimbursed by SHI for HIV services.

Recently, SHI procured its first batch of ARVs that will cover one year of medication for 48,000 HIV/AIDS patients across the country and will scale up to transition all 132,000 Vietnam ARV patients to domestic resources by 2021. On March 8, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink and Vietnam’s Minister of Health led a national celebration of the country’s first HIV patients to receive treatment medicine through SHI. The celebration marked an important milestone in securing domestic sustainable financing for the HIV response in Vietnam and ensuring that people living with HIV have access to uninterrupted and affordable treatment services.

So What? This milestone exemplifies the progress that USAID and the Vietnamese government has made to achieve locally sustainable HIV epidemic control and Vietnam’s increased Self-Reliance in this area.