Traditional medicine should be recognized as a pillar of the healthcare system.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that countries with long-standing traditional medicine traditions, such as Vietnam, should promote the discovery, research, and standardization of medicinal herbs and improve the legal framework to both promote the value of traditional medicine and ensure its safety and effectiveness in healthcare for the people.

In this context, recently, four associations, including the Vietnam Traditional Medicine Association, the Vietnam Southern Medicine Association, the Vietnam Community Health Education and Care Association, and the Vietnam Military and Civilian Medical Association, jointly organized a scientific seminar on the topic "Necessary Content to Include in the Law on Traditional Medicine from a Scientific and Practical Perspective".

The reports presented at the seminar unanimously agreed that Vietnamese traditional medicine is a precious heritage formed and developed over thousands of years of history, linked to indigenous knowledge, folk experience, and the profound humanistic values ​​of the nation.

The development of traditional medicine should be based on the principle of harmony between preservation, inheritance, development, and modernization; both preserving national identity and accessing advanced scientific and technological achievements.

From a very early stage, the Party and State identified the development of traditional medicine as a major policy, stemming from President Ho Chi Minh 's idea of ​​"combining Eastern and Western medicine." This is considered a strategic direction, laying the foundation for building a modern Vietnamese medical system while still inheriting traditional values.

According to Associate Professor Pham Le Tuan, President of the Vietnam Military and Civilian Medical Association, in the context of increasingly diverse healthcare needs, people tend to choose more treatment methods using natural herbs, minimally invasive techniques, and drug-free approaches. This further affirms the important role of traditional medicine in the healthcare system.

However, despite its immense potential, this field still faces many challenges. Much of the knowledge of traditional medicine is at risk of disappearing; traditional Vietnamese medicine is not yet properly recognized in some areas; the medicinal plant value chain lacks linkages and standardization; and mechanisms for protecting, honoring, and sharing benefits with those who preserve indigenous knowledge are still limited.

According to experts, although the Party's guidelines and the State's policies are quite comprehensive, the biggest bottleneck currently lies in the lack of a sufficiently strong institution and a synchronized implementation mechanism to translate these guidelines into reality.

This is also why many believe that the drafting of the Law on Traditional Medicine should be implemented soon to concretize the major orientations outlined in Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW dated September 9, 2025, of the Politburo on some breakthrough solutions in protecting, caring for, and improving people's health, as well as the conclusions of General Secretary To Lam on the development of traditional medicine in the new period.

At the seminar, delegates agreed that the Law on Traditional Medicine must fully institutionalize the Party's policies on building a comprehensive Vietnamese medical system, in which traditional medicine, along with modern medicine, forms the two pillars of the healthcare system.

According to experts, the law needs to clearly affirm the legal status of traditional medicine, not considering it merely a supporting or supplementary field, but an important part of public health care. This will serve as the basis for allocating resources, organizing the system, and formulating long-term development policies.

Furthermore, the development of traditional medicine needs to be based on the principle of harmony between preservation, inheritance, development, and modernization; both preserving national identity and accessing advanced scientific and technological achievements.

All policies should be patient-centered, expanding access to traditional medicine services, especially at the primary healthcare level and in the community.

Some opinions also suggest that the Law on Traditional Medicine should be developed in an open manner, approaching international standards while still being suitable to the practical conditions of Vietnam; at the same time, it must become a tool to remove long-standing bottlenecks, instead of merely legitimizing existing regulations.

Many opinions suggest that the law should create a legal framework for groundbreaking policies such as developing traditional medicine into a pillar of the healthcare system; strengthening the capacity of traditional medicine at the grassroots level; developing national medicinal plant regions; and promoting research, standardization, and commercialization of valuable traditional remedies.

Therefore, delegates proposed that the draft Law on Traditional Medicine be included in the National Assembly's legislative agenda as soon as possible, and that a comprehensive review of current policies be conducted to serve as a basis for improving the legal system.

Improving health insurance policies to unleash the potential of traditional medicine.

Also discussing solutions for developing traditional medicine, at a previous seminar on this topic, the Permanent Deputy Minister of Health, Vu Manh Ha, stated that in recent years, the Party and State have issued many major policies to develop the field of traditional medicine and pharmacy, most notably Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW of the Politburo and Directive No. 25/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on promoting the development of Vietnamese traditional medicine in the new period.

The policies all aim to promote the strengths of traditional medicine; strengthen state management; improve the system's capacity; integrate traditional medicine with modern medicine in training, disease prevention, and diagnosis and treatment; and at the same time improve the quality of traditional medicines and medicinal herbs and widely disseminate the values ​​of traditional medicine to the community.

In particular, at the working session with the Party Committee of the Ministry of Health and related units on May 20, 2026, General Secretary To Lam requested the health sector to shift strongly from a treatment-oriented mindset to comprehensive healthcare; to promote the role of traditional medicine in disease prevention, rehabilitation, elderly care, and to bring traditional medicine closer to the people.

According to Deputy Minister Vu Manh Ha, the Ministry of Health is focusing on comprehensively assessing the current state of health insurance coverage in the field of traditional medicine; and simultaneously researching and perfecting the mechanism for initial registration for medical examination and treatment at traditional medicine facilities to suit professional capacity and practical needs.

In addition, the health sector will continue to review and update the list of traditional medicine techniques and drugs, as well as the health insurance payment mechanism, in a scientific and feasible manner; strengthen digital transformation, data interconnection, and promote the model of combining traditional medicine with modern medicine.

According to the Ministry of Health, the network of traditional medicine clinics and hospitals is being gradually strengthened. Currently, there are 5 traditional medicine hospitals under the Ministry and other ministries and agencies nationwide; 61 provincial-level traditional medicine hospitals, and 10 private traditional medicine hospitals. In 2025 alone, this sector is expected to record approximately 7 million medical examinations and treatments, accounting for about 3.3% of the total number of medical examinations and treatments nationwide.

The list of medicines covered by health insurance currently includes 229 traditional medicines and herbal remedies, and 349 traditional medicinal ingredients. However, according to Ms. Tran Thi Trang, Director of the Health Insurance Department (Ministry of Health), the proportion of spending on traditional medicine from the Health Insurance Fund currently only reaches about 5.42%, equivalent to more than 3,100 billion VND, much lower than the target of the Program for the Development of Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy until 2030. This figure is still quite modest compared to the potential of Vietnam's abundant medicinal resources.

She argued that many businesses have now successfully researched new remedies, with some products undergoing thorough clinical trials, so the payment policy needs to be adjusted to be more appropriate instead of being based solely on price.

Experts also pointed out that the quality of traditional medicine services still varies between different levels and regions; human resources, research capacity, and development of medicinal herbs are not commensurate with their potential.

Accordingly, the early promulgation of the Law on Traditional Medicine not only meets the requirements for perfecting the legal system but also creates a foundation to unlock resources, remove long-standing obstacles, and gradually develop traditional medicine to its rightful place, becoming a pillar of Vietnamese medicine in the new era.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/khoi-day-suc-manh-y-duoc-co-truyen-tu-cai-cach-the-che-d654943.html