Free treatment will be offered for all Covid-19 patients in Vietnam.
The head of the Health Ministry's Planning-Finance Department, Nguyen Nam Lien, confirmed that individuals will receive free treatment and testing for the viral disease, Saigon Times reports.
A Vietnam Social Security official, Le Van Phuc, explained that the entire medical bill will be covered by the national health insurance fund for patients suspected of having the novel virus, but tested negative. Those who test positive for the virus will have their tests and treatment covered by the state budget.
Those who are put into mandatory quarantine will also not be charged any fees for their medical care and stay. Within isolation wards, those quarantined will receive drinking water, towels, and mouthwash for free, as well as medically prescribed cautionary items such as face masks and hand sanitizer.
Food will not be free within quarantined areas, but will be available upon request. Those from poor households will receive a daily meal subsidy of VND40,000. Still, nationwide, isolation facilities in military schools and camps have been using their own budget, or that of their localities, to provide meals for those quarantined free of charge.
Not everyone living in each of the 114 countries where the disease has manifested are so well-off.
In America, for example, 27 million people are uninsured, for whom the cost of testing and treatment is exorbitant. The Miami Herald reported on the case of Osmel Martinez Azcue, who developed flu-like symptoms after returning from a business trip to China.
Azcue, who does have health insurance, took himself to the hospital and tested negative for the virus, but received a bill for US$3,270, US$1,400 of which he is responsible for. The high cost of healthcare in the US could worsen the spread of Covid-19, which has been characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization as of March 11.
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