ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the formal sector as covering workers in registered commercial and non-commercial enterprises, with continuation of their status or affiliation through periods of invalidity and retirement. Strategies were developed to extend coverage, through both the compulsory and voluntary components to four specific target groups: Family members of the compulsory insured, the very low-income population, schoolchildren and students in higher education, and salaried workers in the private and public sector. The review of recent innovations, in Vietnam and Zimbabwe, demonstrated that the extension of coverage in new and developing health insurance schemes may be linked to a different set of factors, which indeed may be easier to deal with in terms of achieving the targets in the extension of coverage. The introduction of health insurance in Vietnam is relatively recent, beginning with the national Vietnam Health Insurance Decree in August 1992.
