[Health and health care in Vietnam]

The South East Asian state of Vietnam is currently undergoing a transition from a centralised socialism to a so-called socialist market economy strongly promoting the private sector. For the last 17 years economy experienced an impressive growth. If the assumption is true that economic growth is positively correlated with the health status of the population, the strengthened economy of Vietnam must go along with an improved health situation and health care system of this country. The following paper evaluates this assumption. It is demonstrated that there is indeed a strongly positive correlation between health and development in many aspects. However, it becomes obvious that economic growth is definitely accompanied by increasing regional and social disparity challenging the health care policy of Vietnam and her international partners.