Client QN044 (male and married) came to the Quang Ninh legal clinic on December 23, 2008, to have a consultation with the lawyer regarding Voluntary Health Insurance. Previously, he thought that a HIV+ person was not qualified for the health insurance; therefore, he did not purchase it.  He has been sick and spent a lot of money for in-patient treatment with his low income. This situation urged him to seek a Voluntary Health Insurance.

During the legal session, the lawyer discussed appropriate regulations that provide medical benefits to the client such as Pursuant to HIV/AIDS law, PLWHA have the rights to have health care, “other rights as stipulated by this law and other related laws”. In addtion, the inter-ministerial circular No. 06/2007/TTLT-BYT-BTC dated March 30, 2007 guides the  implementation of Voluntary Health Insurance and stipulates the beneficiary as the following: “Voluntary Health Insurance is applicable to all Vietnamese citizens (excluding those who already have obligatory Health Insurance card following the Health Insurance regulation issued with Decree 63/2005/NĐ-CP dated May16, 2005 by the Government).

Technically, this client met all the requirements for a Voluntary Health Insurance. However, the insurance program has some restrictions to the client’ s current sickness due to high-cost health services that are clearly mentioned in the above circular on the date of effectiveness, payment norms and unallocable payments (the clinic gave the client a copy of the relevant laws for his reference). Additionally, the legal clinic guided the client to come to the Commune’s People Committee for Voluntary Health Insurance registration.

As a result, the client came to the Commune’s People’s Committee and underwent legal  procedures to got her Health Insurance.