Issuing health insurance cards to people residing in difficult areas

(Baonghean.vn) - Voters in some localities proposed: The central government and provinces should have a policy to issue health insurance cards to Kinh people who have settled down for a long time in mountainous, remote and extremely disadvantaged communes. In addition, implementing voluntary health insurance allows each person to participate, instead of having to participate as a family because poor farmers cannot afford to pay insurance for the whole family.

Reply:

a, According to the provisions of Point h, Clause 3, Article 12 of Law No. 46/QH13 dated June 13, 2014 of the National AssemblyAmending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance: People from poor households; ethnic minorities living in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions; people living in areas with particularly difficult economic conditions; people living in island communes and island districts all have their health insurance paid for by the budget. Thus, people who live and work permanently in the above areas are all granted health insurance cards by the state.

Providing free medicine to people in mountainous areas (Illustration: Nguyen Hai)

b) Participate in family health insurance

Law No. 46/QH13 dated June 13, 2014 of the National Assembly amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance, effective from January 1, 2015. One of the new points of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance that has been receiving much attention from the whole society is the regulation that the group of subjects participating in voluntary health insurance before is a type of compulsory health insurance, meaning that all people whose names are in the household registration book (or temporary residence book) must participate in health insurance.

This is a new point demonstrating the political determination to promote the implementation of universal health insurance in accordance with the spirit of the 2013 Constitution and Resolution 21-NQ-TW dated November 22, 2012 of the Politburo on strengthening the Party's leadership over social insurance and health insurance in the 2012-2020 period.

Patients waiting for medical examination at Tan Ky District General Hospital (illustrative photo: Minh Quan)

Regarding the regulation to encourage participation in health insurance by household. This is the form that countries are currently implementing to cover the rate of participation in health insurance, effectively implementing the work of universal health care. The old Health Insurance Law stipulated participation in health insurance by household but did not stipulate that 100% of members must participate, so compliance was not high, only sick people participated in health insurance, creating a situation of adverse selection.

When participating in family health insurance, the participant will have the contribution gradually reduced from the second member onwards. The second, third, and fourth members will pay 70%, 60%, and 50% of the first member's contribution, respectively. From the fifth person onwards, the contribution will be 40% of the first person's, ensuring sharing within the household.

As for the subjects belonging to poor and near-poor households, the contribution levels are 100% and 70% respectively. Thus, the remaining households participating in family health insurance as prescribed in the amended Law on Health Insurance is in line with the implementation of the roadmap for universal health insurance by 2020.

c) Solutions in the coming time

- Strengthen the dissemination of the Law on Health Insurance and mobilize people to participate. Coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications, Nghe An Newspaper, Radio and Television, Provincial Youth Union, Women's Union and socio-political organizations, unions and related units to develop appropriate dissemination programs and plans.

The Culture - Social Committee of the 16th Provincial People's Council, term 2016 - 2021, surveyed and investigated the implementation of policies for near-poor households in Nghia Dan district (Illustration photo: Mai Hoa)

- Reform administrative procedures for purchasing health insurance cards so that people can easily access and use health insurance cards in medical examination and treatment.

- Implement solutions to expand and improve the quality of the Health Insurance Collection Agent system in the area.

- Issue a number of policies to support the cost of purchasing health insurance cards for near-poor households, people with HIV/AIDS...

- Strengthen and improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, deploy new techniques at all levels... to meet the medical examination and treatment needs of health insurance participants.

PV

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