VietNamNet Bridge – While Viet Nam Social Insurance has been piloting health insurance cards with photos, work has met with some difficulties, according to Nguyen Huy Nghi, deputy head of the agency's Registry and Card division.

"The programme is aimed at supplying people with photo-cards by 2014 in order that no additional identification be needed when applying for hospital treatment," he said.

Kicked off in June this year, the project was run in Hai Phong City with 30,000 participants and in Soc Trang Province with 20,000.

At the start of last year, the project was also run in Gia Lai, Thanh Hoa and Ha Giang provinces.

A total of around 155,000 out of 51 million health insured received cards with photos attached, Nghi said.

However, the programme met with some obstacles, especially in remote and poor areas, he added.

The agency had to spend a lot of time and funds on taking, storing and printing photos for cards valid for between three months and one year alongside pressure to complete work within only 10 days.

In order to feasibly provide people with photo-cards by 2014, the Viet Nam Social Insurance has proposed the use of health insurance cards over longer periods of time, Nghi said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News