Proposal to exempt tuition fees for medical students at public schools

Delegate Tran Khanh Thu said that long study time and high tuition fees due to financial autonomy of schools, beyond the ability of many low- and middle-income families, are barriers for students who want to study medicine.

Delegate Tran Khanh Thu. (Source: VNA)

At the discussion session this morning (December 2), National Assembly delegate Tran Khanh Thu, Hung Yen delegation proposed exempting tuition fees for medical students.

Commenting on the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on a number of breakthrough mechanisms and policies for the protection, care and improvement of people's health, delegate Tran Khanh Thu said that the new draft resolution only mentioned postgraduate training policies in a number of majors, and did not provide breakthrough solutions related to early and remote human resource training.

Meanwhile, medical human resources always play a decisive role in the success of public health care. Medical human resources at the grassroots level currently do not meet the requirements and do not create an attractive environment, ensuring professional development for doctors.

According to the Ministry of Health , the country has 66 universities training medical doctors, of which 18 are public schools. The number of doctors graduating in 2024 is nearly 11,300 people. The scale of medical human resources has increased by 2.33% in the past 10 years but is still low compared to the demand. The total human resources in the health sector is about 431,700 people, much lower than the planned level of 632,500 people.

Meanwhile, the benchmark for medical majors has always been at the highest level in the past 10 years, the long study time, high tuition fees due to financial autonomy of schools, beyond the ability of many low- and middle-income families, becoming barriers for students who want to study medicine.

Delegate Tran Khanh Thu said that when giving comments on the draft revised Law on Higher Education, the delegate proposed to amend Point a, Clause 2, Article 38 in the direction that the State budget ensures funding for training teachers, medical doctors and special priority sectors.

However, according to the report of the Ministry of Education and Training, tuition fees and benefits in training doctors and resident doctors are under the regulation of the Ministry of Health and are implemented according to documents of the health sector. The draft Law on Higher Education does not provide details.

Therefore, the delegates recommended that the Ministry of Health add the subjects of medical doctor training at public training institutions to the group that receives tuition support from the State budget during the study period with a commitment to work as assigned by the State after graduation. This solution helps students, especially disadvantaged students, have the opportunity to study medicine, while also solving the shortage of medical human resources in remote areas and areas lacking doctors.

In addition to the above issue, delegate Tran Khanh Thu also commented on the issue of preferential policies for medical facilities. According to the delegate, in Article 6 of the draft resolution on land, tax and finance policies, Clause 5 stipulates corporate income tax exemption for public medical facilities and private medical facilities operating not for profit.

The delegate said that the tax authority is collecting back taxes from many public health facilities from health insurance revenue and regular fee revenue while according to regulations, revenue sources other than requested services and high-quality services are exempt from corporate income tax. Accordingly, the delegate requested the drafting agency to clearly affirm this provision in the resolution, in the context that public health facilities have been collecting back taxes from 2019 to present.

Clause 7, Article 6, regarding the financial mechanism of public health facilities, delegate Khanh Thu proposed to adjust in the direction that public health facilities are autonomous in deciding on the level of additional income for civil servants and employees from career revenue and other revenue sources according to legal regulations, internal spending regulations and the unit's operating results.

“This regulation is similar to the draft resolution implementing Resolution 71 in the education sector,” said delegate Tran Khanh Thu.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/de-xuat-mien-hoc-phi-cho-sinh-vien-nganh-y-truong-cong-lap-336332.html