With Vietnam’s graduation to middle income status and the global economic crisis, donor funding for HIV and AIDS programs is projected to decline substantially.  USAID is committed to assisting Vietnam in developing a sustainable nationally financed response to this challenge. Vietnam has been expanding its social health insurance (SHI) program admirably over the past 5 years.  However, for a multitude of reasons (including misinterpretation of the existing regulations), HIV and AIDS services are not effectively covered by the SHI scheme. USAID’s Health Policy Initiative Vietnam undertook several pieces of research to inform improvements in SHI for PLHIV.