The National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to add VND424,514 billion to the 2024 health care expenditure estimate for the Ministry of Health to implement expanded immunization.
On the afternoon of August 20, the National Assembly Standing Committee voted to approve the supplement to the 2024 state budget estimate of the Ministry of Health.
Presenting the previous report, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc said the amount of VND424,514 billion includes the budget for purchasing vaccines for expanded immunization in 2024 and reserves for the first 6 months of 2025. Of which, 11 types of vaccines are hepatitis B for newborns, tuberculosis, oral polio, measles, measles – rubella, Japanese encephalitis, diphtheria – whooping cough – tetanus, tetanus – reduced dose diphtheria, tetanus, Rota and DPT-VGB-Hib.
In addition, the additional budget for compensation for vaccine-related adverse events in 2024 is VND 1,497 billion, including: VND 118 million to compensate for one severe adverse event in 2023 and VND 1,379 billion expected to compensate for 12 severe adverse events that may occur in 2024.
Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc. Photo: National Assembly Media
Reviewing this content, the majority of opinions of the Standing Committee of the Finance and Budget Committee agreed to supplement the 2024 state budget estimate of the Ministry of Health, meeting the requirements of ensuring the safety of people’s health and lives, especially children. Vaccines in the expanded immunization program are given free of charge to children, increasing community immunity with a target coverage of more than 95%. In the past two years, due to lack of supply, the vaccination program has been frequently interrupted, leading to children not being vaccinated correctly and sufficiently, reducing immunity.
However, the Standing Committee of the Committee believes that the expanded vaccination task is being deployed and arranged regularly. It was not until August that the Government submitted a proposal to supplement funding for this task, which is quite slow. “The Government is requested to learn from experience and report to clarify the reasons for the delay in budget arrangement,” the review report stated.
The Standing Committee of the Finance and Budget Committee requested the Government to take responsibility for allocating funds to purchase vaccines in accordance with the law, ensuring the rationality to implement vaccination tasks according to the set plan.
There are opinions in the inspection agency asking the Government to clearly report the reason why the expected number of serious adverse events that may occur in 2024 is expected to increase many times (12 cases), compared to 2023 (one). At the same time, the Government should consider adding more funding for propaganda, education and communication for expanded immunization.