After more than 30 years of implementation, Vietnam's health insurance policies have been increasingly improved to become one of the pillars in the social security policy system.

The tasks of accelerating the coverage of health insurance, promoting the roadmap for universal health insurance, successfully implementing the goals set by the Party and State need the cooperation of the entire political and social system, so that no one is left behind in medical examination and treatment.

Gradually filling the void

According to the government’s Decision 546, Vietnam aims for the national health insurance coverage rate of 93.2% in 2023, 94.1% in 2024, and 95.15% in 2025. The People's Committees of provinces/cities are requested to submit plans to the People's Councils to arrange local budgets and mobilize all resources to further support people participating in the health insurance system.

The Vietnam Social Security Agency reported that by the end of June 2023, the health insurance coverage rate reached nearly 92%, equivalent to nearly 91 million participants, an increase of 4.35 million people over the same period of last year. Many provinces and cities have applied effective solutions to promote the coverage, helping many people participate in the health insurance system.

In the central province of Binh Dinh, by the end of April 2023, 18,000 people had to stop paying and 70,000 people had never participated in health insurance, reported Director of the Department of Health of Binh Dinh Le Quang Hung at the 11th meeting of the Provincial People's Council on July 13. The reason why people stopped paying health insurance was due to the difficult economic situation, they did not have stable jobs, lost their jobs, and had reduced income.

One day later, the Chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Council signed Resolution No. 18 to support health insurance premiums for a number of subjects in the province, effective from July 24. Accordingly, financial support for people from near-poor households to pay health insurance premiums increases from 15% to 30%, the remaining 70% is provided by the central budget.

For people from households working in agriculture, forestry, fishery and salt production with an average living standard, the financial support is equivalent to 30% of the health insurance premium. Of the remaining 70%, 30% is provided by the central budget and 40% is paid by participants themselves. For people infected with HIV and leprosy patients with disability confirmed by the local competent health agency, the province will provide financial support worth 100% of the health insurance premium.

In the northern midland province of Phu Tho, 93.5% of the population have health insurance cards. This is among the provinces with high health insurance coverage rates in the country. Mr. Tran Xuan Long, Deputy Director of the Social Security Agency of Phu Tho province, said that this province continues to mobilize social resources to give free health insurance cards to people of disadvantaged circumstances to spread the social welfare policy more widely to the residential community.

So far this year, the Social Security Agency of Phu Tho has coordinated with donors to present more than 3,600 health insurance cards worth more than 1 billion VND to people from near-poor households and people in difficult circumstances in the province.

Ensuring equal rights in medical examination and treatment

The above support policies and attention from the whole society are considered a "lifesaver" for vulnerable groups. This contributes to reducing the economic burden, giving them the opportunity to receive health care if they unfortunately get sick.

“Participating in the health insurance system, people enjoy many benefits when they are ill. It can be said that the health insurance card is a lifesaver for patients, helping them escape the medical "poverty trap" and reducing the risk of becoming a burden of their families and society," Mr. Long said.

After 3 years of the Covid-19 pandemic, many families across the country fell into difficult circumstances, many workers lost their jobs, and the family breadwinner suddenly became unstable. As difficulties pile up, the plan to pay health insurance for the family and children of school age become harder.

If children are unlucky enough to get sick without a health insurance card, it will be a vicious burden of poverty - illness - impoverishment - illiteracy - unemployment - poverty. While they are the young generation, the future owners of the country, they need to be cared for and protected for their health...

Therefore, students, especially those in difficult circumstances, are a special target for society's attention and support. Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW of the Politburo on strengthening the Party's leadership over social insurance and health insurance clearly stated the view that "It is necessary to expand the State's support policy for a number of groups of buyers of social insurance and health insurance, including health insurance for pupils and students.

Mr. Nguyen The Manh, General Director of the Vietnam Social Security Agency, said that up to now, the rate of students participating in health insurance nationwide has reached over 97%, equivalent to over 18.8 million people.

“The effectiveness of health insurance implementation is not only in the increased coverage rate, but more importantly, health insurance benefits for pupils and students are increasingly guaranteed. Accordingly, when participating in the health insurance system, students will enjoy more benefits such as receiving primary health care right at school; having access to health insurance medical examination and treatment with convenient and open procedures, as well as to high-tech, high-cost medical services...", Mr. Manh said.

Health care at school not only helps students and their families detect diseases promptly, care for and facilitate treatment of school-related diseases related to vision, correct sitting posture to prevent scoliosis but also detect early signs of abnormalities that can lead to chronic, dangerous diseases, promptly intervene and treat them early, ensuring children's health in the future.

The health insurance fund has paid for many patients who are students with incurable and chronic diseases that require long-term treatments such as hemodialysis, cancer, cardiovascular surgery, etc. The fund from the health insurance fund for these cases ranges from several tens of millions to billions of VND.

For example, a student in Vinh Long province received up to 1.18 billion VND from the health insurance fund. A student in Ho Chi Minh City also received about 1.1 billion VND. For these students, health insurance is a "lifesaver" not only for themselves but also for their family and society.

According to Mr. Manh, effectively implementing health insurance for students will not only bring immediate benefits (increasing coverage, ensuring health insurance medical examination and treatment benefits for students), but more importantly, it will raise awareness of the young generation about the country's social security, contributing to building a culture and habit of participating in social insurance and health insurance and to spreading the sharing and humanity of the social security policies of the Party and State.

According to the Vietnam Social Security Agency, every year, more than 100 million people have health insurance benefits guaranteed. Thousands of people have had their medical examination and treatment costs covered by the health insurance fund amounting to hundreds of millions of VND. In particular, there are patients who have been paid billions of VND by the health insurance fund.

Minh An