Prioritize resources for disease prevention in disadvantaged areas

The draft Law on Disease Prevention will prioritize resources for disease prevention in disadvantaged areas. People in remote and isolated areas and ethnic minority areas will be the top priority group in national target programs, ensuring that no one is left behind. Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan emphasized this at the discussion session of Group 8 (including the National Assembly delegations of Bac Ninh and Ca Mau provinces) on the draft Law on Disease Prevention on October 23.

Consider expanding surrogacy to non-relatives

Discussing the Draft Population Law at Group 8, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan emphasized that the population issue is one of the important issues and has been mentioned in many documents of the Party and State. Most recently, Resolution 72-NQ/TW dated September 9, 2025 of the Politburo also has many important orientations on population policy.

According to the Minister, in recent times, population policies have been mainly implemented in accordance with the Population Ordinance. However, Vietnam is facing an aging population and a decreasing replacement birth rate, requiring fundamental and urgent solutions. Therefore, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Health to urgently review, revise and supplement relevant regulations.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan speaks at Group 8 (including National Assembly delegations from Bac Ninh and Ca Mau provinces)

The Minister of Health said that when drafting the Population Law, the drafting agency selected issues that were not regulated by other laws to include and reviewed very carefully. Therefore, policies related to population structure and quality, reducing gender imbalance at birth, replacement fertility and population aging are among the core contents of the policy.

One of the issues in the draft Law that delegates are concerned about is the regulation on surrogacy. The Minister believes that this content should not be included in the draft Law on Population. According to the Minister, this issue will be considered and calculated based on many socio-economic factors to make an appropriate decision when the National Assembly amends the Law on Marriage and Family.

Sharing more about this, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the current regulations in the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family took effect from 2015. Because this is one of the issues related to many aspects of society; family, the rights of surrogate mothers; the issue of social and psychological consequences, at that time the National Assembly discussed very carefully and also selected the regulations to deploy and implement in practice but avoid taking advantage of and abusing policies related to the issue of surrogacy and the business issue of surrogacy.

According to the Minister, Vietnam is one of the few countries that allows surrogacy. After using other interventions but they were ineffective, surrogacy for humanitarian purposes was proposed voluntarily.

According to the Minister, the concept of "relatives" in the guiding decrees has also been expanded to include siblings of uncles, aunts, etc., not just limited to biological siblings. The expansion of the surrogacy category to non-relatives, according to the Minister, needs to be carefully studied and should not be included in the Population Law at this time.

Regarding the policies in the draft Law, the Minister said that the Ministry of Health really wants to have specific policies, especially monetary support policies. However, this needs to be balanced in many aspects, especially the issue of financial resources.

Regarding the social housing support policy for families with two children, especially regarding housing, Minister Dao Hong Lan shared: the demand for social housing is very large, not everyone who registers can buy. Therefore, the draft Law stipulates a number of priority groups.

"We propose to add families where women give birth to two children or men with two biological children whose wives have died... to the priority group. When scoring, the score is at a high level like other priority groups," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.

Responding to the delegates' opinions on expanding the policy for "illegitimate children", the Minister said that it is necessary to consider because you do not declare your children, when you declare it then we will know what is illegitimate or not, but if the law stipulates biological children, legally adopted children, then it is implemented according to the provisions of the law. Therefore, expanding to illegitimate children must also be considered very carefully", the Minister emphasized.

Encourage private health sector participation in disease prevention and control

Regarding the draft Law on Disease Prevention, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the current Law has revealed many limitations. The current Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases has a very narrow scope and is no longer suitable.

When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the National Assembly had to continuously issue Resolutions, but these resolutions were only temporary in nature to resolve practical problems. Therefore, after the Covid-19 pandemic passed, the development of a new Law on Disease Prevention with a comprehensive approach, in the spirit of "prevention is better than cure", has become an urgent requirement, drawing from profound lessons in the practice of fighting the pandemic.

This bill not only aims to fill legal gaps but also concretizes new regulations of the Party and State, especially the spirit of Resolution 72 on prioritizing disease prevention. The goal is to create a solid legal corridor, helping the health system proactively respond to all public health situations, instead of just solving problems when they occur.

Scene of the discussion session at Group 8

One of the core points of the new Law on Disease Prevention is the expansion of the scope of regulation. For the first time, common non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure will be specifically included in the law, making the regulations easier to understand and implement in practice.

In addition, nutrition-related policies will also be systematically presented. Although national nutrition programs have been implemented, resources for the programs are limited, reducing effectiveness. The new law hopes to ensure that policies are issued with appropriate implementation resources.

In particular, the law will prioritize resources for disease prevention in disadvantaged areas. People in remote and ethnic minority areas will be the top priority group in national target programs, ensuring that no one is left behind in health care.

The Law on Disease Prevention will have breakthrough solutions to encourage the participation of the private health sector, from hospitals, medical facilities to pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturing sectors, the Minister added. Citing the success of this strategy as evidence of domestic vaccine production capacity, the Minister said that Vietnam has been self-sufficient in 11 out of 12 types of vaccines in the expanded immunization program. This production capacity comes not only from the public system but also from the increasingly large contributions of non-public units.

According to the Minister, the Ministry of Health is actively coordinating with international partners such as France, Russia, and Cuba to implement key programs on vaccine and drug production, in which the role of the non-public system is especially encouraged. This not only helps ensure supply but also creates a flexible health system that quickly responds to the requirements of protecting people's health.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/uu-tien-nguon-luc-cho-cong-tac-phong-chong-benh-tat-tai-cac-khu-vuc-kho-khan-10392655.html