Vietnam Social Insurance issues a document "calming down" the collection of health insurance fees.
“For 2015: Collect health insurance fees from students for the remaining months of 2015, with the validity period on the health insurance card corresponding to the amount paid into the health insurance fund. Health insurance fees will only be collected once from October 2015 to December 31, 2016, if students wish and voluntarily choose to pay…”
The above is an excerpt from Urgent Official Letter No. 3592/BHXH-BT signed by Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh - Deputy Minister and Director General of Vietnam Social Security, issued on the afternoon of September 18th, directing the collection of health insurance premiums for students in the 2015-2016 academic year.
This is a positive and prompt response from Vietnam Social Security immediately after receiving information about some provinces and cities collecting health insurance contributions at different rates.
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| Providing specific guidance on the timing of health insurance premium collection for the 2015-2016 school year helps parents proactively choose a fee level that suits their budget. |
Some places even collect health insurance premiums in a single 15-month package, which is not stipulated in Circular 41/TTLT-BTC-BYT guiding the collection of health insurance premiums for students in the 2015-2016 academic year.
How many groups are directly affected by the collection of health insurance premiums from students? According to a report by the Vietnam Social Security, approximately 15 million students nationwide are currently participating in health insurance. The number of students participating in health insurance is increasing year by year. Accordingly: - In the 2010-2011 academic year, nearly 70% of students nationwide participated in health insurance. - In the 2012-2013 school year, this rate was approximately 80%. In the 2013-2014 school year, this rate was 85%. - In the 2014-2015 academic year, this rate was 88.5%, corresponding to approximately 15 million students with health insurance cards (of which 12.3 million students were enrolled in their schools and 3.7 million students were enrolled in health insurance through other groups). |
According to official document 3592/BHXH-BT issued on the afternoon of September 18th, the Vietnam Social Security (BHXH VN) instructed that the collection of health insurance premiums for the 2015-2016 school year will be divided into several methods, but cannot be collected together for 15 months.
Specifically: For the remaining 3 months of 2015, the collection will be separate from 2016 and will only cover these 3 months. This means that Vietnam Social Security will issue health insurance cards to students based on the last 3 months of 2015.
In 2016, the Vietnam Social Security (BHXH VN) issued guidelines for collecting contributions every 6 or 12 months. The validity period indicated on the card corresponds to the amount paid into the health insurance fund.
Regarding the 15-month payment plan, Vietnam Social Security only accepts the 15-month payment if the student wishes to and voluntarily chooses to pay.
This is the clearest statement ever made by the Vietnam Social Security agency.
This helps avoid the spontaneous collection practices that have occurred in many localities recently. Accordingly, some provinces collect health insurance premiums every 6 months, 12 months, or even a lump sum of 15 months.
In addition, separating the time slots also helps parents save some money on the total fees they have to pay to the school at the beginning of the school year.
Official document 3592/BHXH-BT also clearly states that provincial social insurance agencies need to closely coordinate with provincial Departments of Education and Training to review inter-agency guidance documents and promptly adjust any guidance content that is not in accordance with the regulations of the Health Insurance Law and other guidance documents (if any) in organizing the collection of health insurance premiums for students in the 2015-2016 academic year.
According to Vietnamnet.vn
