The impact of health insurance policy on healthcare utilization and out-of-pocket payments among students in Vietnam

This study focuses on healthcare utilization and out-of-pocket expenditures among individuals aged 6 to 21 years to assess the impact of the revised healthcare law implemented in 2014 on Vietnam's social health insurance program. This study utilizes data from four waves of the Vietnam household living standards survey (VHLSS) and employs propensity score matching-difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method. This study finds that changes in the law decrease the number of outpatient visits for some specific demographic groups, but these effects are not consistently observed across all age groups. The study also finds that there is no evidence to suggest that out-of-pocket spending on hospitalization has decreased since the implementation of the revised law from 2014.