Student health insurance: Taking care of the health of the young generation

In particular, health insurance for students has practical meaning and benefits in providing the young generation - the future owners of the country - with a comprehensive health care mechanism right from school.

Ensuring benefits for more than 681,000 students

As of August 30, 2023-2024 school year, the policyhealth insurancehas covered 97.98% of students in Nghe An province, with 681,677 students participating. That means that in the whole province, more than 681,000 students are guaranteed and fully enjoy health insurance benefits according to regulations, in which, if they are unlucky enough to get sick or ill, the health insurance fund will pay for unlimited medical examination and treatment costs according to the scope and level of benefits, which can be up to billions of VND/year.

When participating in health insurance, if students go to the right hospital for examination and treatment, the health insurance fund will pay 80% of the medical examination and treatment costs within the scope and benefits they are entitled to. In case of examination and treatment outside the designated area, students will be entitled to the following health insurance coverage and benefits: 40% of inpatient treatment costs at central hospitals; 100% of inpatient treatment costs at provincial hospitals; 100% of costs at district hospitals.

During the development process, health insurance policies are increasingly improved in the direction of increasing and expanding the benefits and quality of health insurance examination and treatment. Accordingly, students who participate also enjoy more benefits from the health insurance policy such as: Receiving primary health care right at school; participating in health insurance examination and treatment with convenient procedures; accessing high-tech, high-cost medical services... Thanks to the health insurance card, many students and their families are proactive in the cost of medical examination and treatment, easing the financial burden in difficult times when they are unfortunately sick or ill, so that students can rest assured to receive treatment and return to normal living and studying environment soon.

Notably, while the Law on Health Insurance does not have detailed regulations for preventive medicine, students have indirectly enjoyed these benefits through primary health care at school. Primary health care at schools is currently operated mainly from the budget allocated from the health insurance examination and treatment fund for school health activities (including the content of supporting periodic health check-ups and health classification for students at the beginning of the school year; organizing educational, health and disease prevention counseling activities, etc.).

According to the provisions of the Law on Health Insurance, students are required to participate in health insurance. Therefore, participating in health insurance is not only a right but also a responsibility to comply with the law, demonstrating the spirit of mutual love and support of students through contributing and sharing risks with those who are unfortunately sick, ill, etc., especially with the poor and those in disadvantaged groups in society.

However, in the province, there are still about 2% of students who have not participated in health insurance, concentrated in the group of university students and students of colleges and intermediate schools. Among these, some students and parents still do not fully understand the health insurance policy, thinking that they only need to participate in health insurance when they are sick...

Many students were paid hundreds of millions of dong for medical treatment.

In reality, the health insurance fund has paid for many patients who are students with incurable, chronic diseases that require long-term treatment (such as dialysis, cancer treatment, cardiovascular surgery, etc.) with costs ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dong, helping them and their families reduce the burden of medical examination and treatment costs, and giving them more motivation to feel secure in their treatment.

Among them, we can mention the patient with card code HS44040175XXXXX (Nghi Loc), who went for outpatient examination and treatment and inpatient treatment under health insurance 4 times in 2022 at Facility 2 - Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital with the main diagnoses such as combined pathology of mitral valve, aortic valve and tricuspid valve; Acute and subacute infective endocarditis; Congestive heart failure; Presence of other replacement heart valves... The cost of health insurance fund payment for the patient is more than 411 million VND.

Or the patient with card code HS44040180XXXXX (Vinh city) had 9 outpatient and inpatient medical examinations and treatments under health insurance in the first 6 months of 2023 at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital and the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital with the main diagnoses such as acute myeloid leukemia. The cost of health insurance fund payment for the patient was more than 666 million VND.

From the above figures, it can be affirmed that the health insurance policy has a humane meaning and a deep sense of community sharing. Especially for students, students, and people with serious illnesses that require long-term treatment, the value of participating in health insurance is multiplied many times over. The health insurance card has not only helped patients have the opportunity to access and use medical supplies and high-tech, expensive services to treat their illnesses, but also helped the patient's family not fall into economic decline just because of worrying about the cost of medical examination and treatment for their relatives.

Therefore, to achieve the goal of 100% of students participating in health insurance, so that all students can receive health care right from school, in addition to the strong direction from the Party Committee, local authorities, and close coordination between the Provincial Social Insurance and the Department of Education and Training, it is necessary to have the participation of the whole society, and more importantly, the awareness of self-awareness and proactive participation in health insurance of each student and parent./.