Universal health insurance: Patients enjoy many benefits
Among the more than 30% of people who have not participated in health insurance, most are people who really need health insurance cards. They are near-poor people, farmers, students...
Recently, the Ministry of Health has submitted to the Government a draft project to implement a roadmap for universal health insurance. Unlike previous drafts that only focused on expanding the number of people participating in health insurance, this time the draft proposes a roadmap for universal health insurance in all three aspects: Number of participants, service benefits and increased payments from the health insurance fund - Ms. Tong Thi Song Huong, Director of the Department of Health Insurance, Ministry of Health said.
The draft sets the target of 75% of the population participating in health insurance by 2015; by 2020, over 90% of the population will have health insurance. If we compare the current rate of people participating in health insurance, this target is not too far away. However, there are still many challenges because even those who are required to participate in health insurance have not reached 100%.
Patients with health insurance will enjoy many new incentives. Photo TL
As for voluntary subjects, for many reasons, the participation rate is not high. Among the more than 30% of people who have not participated in health insurance, most of them are people who really need health insurance cards. They are near-poor people, farmers, students, freelancers, whose lives are still difficult. If they get sick or have a serious illness without a health insurance card, they are very likely to become poor.
This draft project proposed to support students with 50% of the health insurance card value; support 30% of the remaining health insurance card value for people in extremely disadvantaged communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas or those who have just escaped poverty for less than 2 years; propose to increase the support level for agricultural, forestry and fishery subjects to 50%.
According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, Vietnam's health insurance premiums are still low compared to other countries in the region. Buyers only have to pay about 550,000 VND/person/year but have quite large incentives such as: Payment for many expensive special drugs, cancer and a series of high-tech... In particular, when the new hospital fees are applied, the rights of patients participating in health insurance will be better guaranteed.
However, in reality, people do not fully understand the benefits of buying health insurance cards, partly because the quality of medical examination and treatment does not meet people's needs; health insurance examination and treatment procedures are cumbersome, and the rights of health insurance participants are still limited. Ms. Song Huong said that in the past, the medical examination fee was only 3,000 VND/time, so anyone could afford to pay for the examination.
Furthermore, the service packages have not been calculated correctly and fully, so the payment value of health insurance is too low. For example, a surgery costs more than 1 million VND, the health insurance fund only pays about 100,000 VND, which is not worth the patient's trouble with the procedures. But with the new hospital fee policy, medical services are calculated correctly and fully... so people do not have to spend too much money out of pocket, they will feel the benefits of the health insurance card.
The goal of the Universal Health Insurance Project is to expand the coverage of health insurance in terms of the number of participants, the scope of health services received, and reduce out-of-pocket payments of people using health services. To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Health is committed to improving the quality of health insurance examination and treatment. Gradually innovate the financial mechanism, so that by 2015, direct out-of-pocket spending of households will be reduced to below 40% and below 30% by 2020.
According to Law & Society - NT
