Protecting and caring for people's health is the responsibility of the entire system.

(Chinhphu.vn) - Important laws in the health sector are being completed with high responsibility. National Assembly deputies have spent a lot of time researching, discussing and contributing enthusiastic, profound and constructive opinions to the draft Law on Population and the draft Law on Disease Prevention.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan speaks, explains and clarifies the opinions of National Assembly deputies - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On the afternoon of November 10, after National Assembly deputies discussed the draft Law on Disease Prevention and the Law on Population in the National Assembly hall, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan spoke, explained and clarified the opinions raised by the deputies.

Population policies at new heights

On behalf of the drafting agency, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan respectfully thanks the National Assembly Standing Committee, the National Assembly agencies, and the National Assembly deputies for spending a lot of time researching, discussing, and contributing thoughtful, profound, and constructive opinions to the draft Population Law and the draft Disease Prevention Law.

Regarding the Population Law project, according to Minister Dao Hong Lan, this is a law with a very wide scope, directly related to people and human rights, especially the way to express policies to care for Vietnamese people in all fields.

Therefore, when drafting the Population Law, the Ministry of Health reviewed all relevant regulations. There are about 60 laws and codes related to people and human rights that have been carefully reviewed and examined.

For example, population size has been identified as one of the criteria in the Law on Urban and Rural Planning; population structure is shown in the Law on Children, the Law on the Elderly, the Law on Youth, etc.

For a more specific example, the Minister of Health said that the contents related to population structure, size, distribution and quality have been regulated in many different laws.

Affirming that in the process of developing the Population Law project, the Ministry of Health always tries to demonstrate the spirit of Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW of 2017 of the Central Committee; especially Conclusion No. 149 of the Politburo on the 5-year review of the implementation of Resolution 21 and most recently Resolution 72-NQ/TW of the Politburo on a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health, in order to demonstrate the new spirit in population policy.

A fundamental change in this Population Law is to shift the focus from "Population and Family Planning Policy" to "Population and Development", aiming to synchronously resolve issues of population size, structure, distribution and quality in relation to the socio-economic development of the country and each locality.

According to Minister Dao Hong Lan, the goal is to create a legal basis to implement population policies at a new level.

The provisions of the Population Law reflect that spirit when the Government designed the scope of the law with 6 policy groups, including: Maintaining replacement fertility; minimizing gender imbalance at birth; adapting to population aging and aging population; improving population quality; strengthening communication, advocacy, education on population and ensuring conditions during implementation.

In the spirit of the framework law, detailed regulations on subjects, scope, and implementation resources will be prescribed by the Government in accordance with each stage of socio-economic development.

Regarding resources, we need to look at both the short-term and long-term. Population policy, solving the problem of population aging, and raising the replacement fertility rate require huge investments. Through studying the report of delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan and international experience, it can be seen that many countries such as Japan and South Korea spend huge budgets on this field, but so far the results are still very challenging.

"We believe that there needs to be participation and synchronous coordination of all ministries, departments and branches," the Minister emphasized.

Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

People-centered, early disease prevention, remote disease prevention

Regarding the Law on Disease Prevention, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that this law is also multi-sectoral and multi-field.

Through reviewing the legal system, there are 63 laws with regulations related to disease prevention and health promotion, including three main groups.

The group of laws directly regulating the health sector – includes 10 laws, including the Law on Protection of People's Health (1989) and other health laws.

Group of regulations related to health care - such as the Labor Code, Law on the Elderly, Law on the Disabled, Law on Children, Ordinance on preferential treatment for people with revolutionary contributions, legal regulations on public security, national defense, civil affairs, Red Cross, gender equality, prevention of domestic violence...

Group of regulations related to health impact factors - including 15 laws such as Law on Environmental Protection, Law on Natural Resources, Law on Land, Law on Physical Training and Sports, Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting...

To institutionalize the Party's viewpoint in Resolution 20 and Resolution 72 of the Politburo - shifting the mindset from "treating diseases" to "proactively preventing diseases", taking people as the center, preventing diseases early, preventing diseases from afar, the Minister of Health said that the Law on Disease Prevention clearly shows the general principles, avoiding overlap and conflict with current regulations.

The task of protecting, caring for and improving people's health is not only the task of the health sector, but also the responsibility of many levels, many sectors, and the entire political system. For example, environmental issues are closely related to people's health - from the central to local levels, there are legal regulations.

Therefore, in the process of drafting the law, the Government focused the scope of regulation on the following contents: Prevention and control of infectious diseases; prevention and control of non-communicable diseases; prevention and control of mental health disorders; control of risk factors and nutrition in disease prevention; and conditions to ensure disease prevention work.

In addition, the Minister of Health added that this law is a framework law, stipulating basic principles and policies, while specialized laws, decrees and circulars will specify it later.

For example, the policy of supporting preschool education for children of workers and laborers has been stipulated in the Law on Education (amended) and Decree 66/2025/ND-CP of the Government; or the policy of exempting tuition fees is stipulated in Resolution 107/2017 of the National Assembly, along with many other documents.

"With the spirit of openness and the highest responsibility, the Ministry of Health will fully absorb the opinions of National Assembly deputies, closely coordinate with National Assembly agencies to review, revise, and perfect the draft law, and report to the Government for submission to the National Assembly for approval.

And with a high spirit of determination, we hope that the National Assembly delegates will support the two drafts of the Population Law and the Disease Prevention Law to be passed right at this session. Because this is the last session and in the coming period, there are many other health policy contents that need to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration," Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan emphasized.

Hai Lien

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/bao-ve-cham-soc-suc-khoe-nhan-dan-la-nhiem-vu-cua-ca-he-thong-102251110181304358.htm