The College of Economics, Law and Government would like to respectfully invite lecturers/ researchers to come and share your experiences at the CELG seminar:
Topic: Temporal Trends in the Incidence of Catastrophic Health Expenditure and Financial Protection of Social Health Insurance Schemes in Vietnam
Presenter: Professor Ardeshir Sepehri, University of Manitoba.
Time: 11:00 – 12:00, Thursday, April 9, 2026
Location: B1-1001, UEH Campus B, 279 Nguyen Tri Phuong St, Dien Hong Ward, HCMC
Social health insurance (SHI) is considered a mechanism to accelerate the progress toward universal health coverage and protect households against the risk of incurring catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This study investigates temporal trends in the incidence of CHE and the financial protection provided by Vietnam’s SHI to rural and urban households over the period 2006–2020 using Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey. The time trend results showed a steep decline in CHE incidence in rural areas over the period 2006–2016 and in urban areas over the period 2006–2012, after which the trends largely plateaued. The findings also indicated a shift in the pattern of financial risk protection provided by SHI. While higher insurance coverage among household members was associated with a reduced risk of CHE in both rural and urban households during 2006–2010, this association became statistically insignificant among urban households in 2012–2014 and 2016–2020, and was associated with an increased risk among rural households in 2016–2020. Additional analyses indicated that controlling for health facility type attenuated the magnitude of the downward trend by 10–15% during 2010–2014, by 22.3% in 2016, and by up to 30.8% in 2020, but did not significantly alter the temporal trend in CHE incidence among urban households. These findings underscore the need to reform Vietnam’s hospital-centric delivery system and strengthen financial protections for vulnerable groups against disproportionate financial burdens.
About the presenter: Ardeshir Sepehri is Professor of Economics and Society at the University of Manitoba, Canada. His research span a wide spectrum from macroeconomics, development economics, to health economics, and has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Development Economics, World Development, Journal of International Development, Social Science and Medicine, Health Economics, among others.
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Source: CELG Administration Office.
