These hospitals will no longer receive funding from the state budget and will now officially be self-funding all regular activities. Financial autonomy is designed to help reduce State expenditures so that funds can be diverted into preventive medicine and poured into community-care programmes. Reduced State spending will also allow the State to pay for more health insurance cards for the poor, including those near the poverty line and welfare recipients. All public hospitals and clinics in Ho Chi Minh City have started applying new fees for people who don't have health insurance cards from October 1st.
