Coverage increases, health insurance benefits for students are increasingly expanded

With that in mind, over the years, the policyStudent health insurancehas been effectively implemented, reflected not only in increased coverage but also in the increasingly guaranteed rights to health insurance for children.

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung, Deputy Head of the Revenue - Book and Card Management Department (Vietnam Social Security) had a more specific discussion on this issue.

Reporter: The protection, health care and comprehensive development of the young generation through the Student Health Insurance policy has received special attention from our Party and State. How has this attention been materialized through viewpoints, goals, tasks and implementation solutions, sir?

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung:On November 14, 2008, at the 4th Session, the 12th National Assembly passed the Law on Health Insurance (effective from July 1, 2009). It stipulates that from January 1, 2010, students will be transferred from voluntary participants to responsible participants in Health Insurance. When the Law on Health Insurance was amended and supplemented in 2014 (effective from January 1, 2015), it continued to stipulate that students are subjects participating in compulsory Health Insurance and are supported by the State budget (minimum support from 30% to 100% of the contribution depending on the priority group). In the implementation roadmap, for universal health insurance, students continue to be selected as the group of subjects that need to be covered by Health Insurance soon.

With the goal of accelerating the roadmap for universal health insurance, based on Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW dated November 22, 2012 of the Politburo, Resolution No. 68/2013/QH13 dated November 29, 2013 of the National Assembly, Directive No. 05/CT-TTg dated April 2, 2015... on strengthening the implementation of policies and laws on social insurance and health insurance, on June 28, 2016, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1167/QD-TTg on adjusting the assignment of health insurance implementation targets. In particular, the Prime Minister has thoroughly emphasized the need to promote the implementation of health insurance for students; assigned the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to direct the development of a plan to implement health insurance for students, ensuring 100% of students participate in health insurance.

Thus, from the guidelines to the legal documents related to the Student Health Insurance policy, it has shown the great determination of the Party and the State to implement the Health Insurance law in general and the Health Insurance law for students - the future generation of the country in particular. At the same time, it has affirmed the consistency in the policy of implementing Student Health Insurance as an important step to complete the goal of universal health insurance in our country.

Reporter: In addition to supporting 30% of the health insurance premium for students from the state budget, many provinces and cities also have additional support mechanisms and policies to encourage students to participate in health insurance. Could you please tell us the total number of provinces and cities that have this additional support level, contributing effectively to health care and comprehensive development for the young generation?

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung:In recent years, in addition to supporting 30% of the health insurance premium for students from the state budget, many provinces and cities have paid attention to and balanced the local budget and mobilized social resources to support additional health insurance premiums for students in the area. In 2022, 27 provinces and cities have supported additional health insurance premiums for students. Some provinces and cities have large support levels as follows: Ha Giang (supporting 70% of the premium); Hung Yen, Ba Ria - Vung Tau (supporting 30% of the premium); Quang Ngai (supporting 20-30% of the premium); Bac Kan, Ca Mau, Hau Giang, Ninh Binh, Son La, Vinh Phuc (supporting 20% ​​of the premium)...

In addition, some provinces and cities provide separate support for health insurance premiums for students in special cases, such as: Ho Chi Minh City supports 100%, Dong Nai supports 70% of health insurance premiums for students with disabilities; An Giang, Lam Dong support 70% for students who are ethnic minorities; Binh Phuoc supports 70% for students in difficult circumstances...

PV: Over the past years, Vietnam Social Security has made efforts to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to effectively organize and implement the Student Health Insurance policy and achieved outstanding results. How do you evaluate these results?

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung:In recent years, to concretize the Party's policies and laws on Health Insurance, the entire political system has actively participated, especially the proactive and close coordination of the Vietnam Social Security and the Education and Training sector in the propaganda work, organizing and effectively implementing the Health Insurance policy for students. Thanks to that, the rate of students participating in Health Insurance has increased gradually over the years; to date, the results have approached the target of 100% coverage of students participating in Health Insurance.

If in the 2012-2013 school year, the rate of students participating in health insurance reached 80% of the total number of students, then by the 2022-2023 school year, this rate will reach over 97% with about 18.8 million students participating in health insurance, an increase of more than 17% after 10 years of implementation. Notably, last school year, many localities achieved 100% coverage of students with health insurance cards, such as the provinces: Ha Nam, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh...

It can be said that the number of students participating in Health Insurance has been increasing continuously over the years, showing that the awareness of students and parents about the benefits, meaning and importance of participating in Health Insurance... has changed significantly, from a passive attitude to a proactive and active participation. For example, if in the past, some parents had the notion that only when their children had incurable or chronic diseases, requiring treatment with large medical examination and treatment costs would they participate in Health Insurance, now, most parents have proactively participated in Health Insurance for their children right from when their children were healthy. Participating in Student Health Insurance is both to protect and care for the health of the younger generation and to demonstrate compassion and responsibility to the community to jointly implement the principle of ensuring risk sharing among Health Insurance participants.

In addition, the benefits of medical examination and treatment under Health Insurance for students are increasingly expanded, the quality of medical examination and treatment is increasingly improved with convenient and open procedures, access to high-tech medical services, high costs... Looking at the results of medical examination and treatment under Health Insurance for students in the past time, it shows that the Health Insurance fund has paid for many patients who are students with incurable and chronic diseases such as kidney failure, cancer, cardiovascular disease... with treatment costs ranging from tens of millions to billions of dong.

Reporter: Student health insurance brings many practical benefits and rights to participants. However, up to now, there are still a number of students who have not participated in health insurance. Given this situation, what solutions has the industry focused on implementing to soon achieve 100% health insurance coverage for students?

Mr. Dinh Duy Hung:Up to now, the rate of students participating in health insurance in our country has approached the target of covering 100% of students. However, there is still a small number of students who are not fully aware of the benefits and humanity of the health insurance policy for students, so they have not participated in health insurance (mainly students from the second year and above of universities, colleges and vocational schools). This causes them to lose the opportunity to enjoy health care benefits from the health insurance policy. Especially for students who are unfortunately diagnosed with a serious illness, if they do not have a health insurance card, their families may have to face the burden of large treatment costs, affecting the family's economy as well as their medical examination and treatment process.

With the determination to complete the goal of 100% of students participating in Health Insurance, contributing to the implementation of Universal Health Insurance, Vietnam Social Security has been and will synchronously deploy the following key tasks and solutions:

Directing the provincial and municipal Social Insurance to continue advising the Provincial People's Committee and the Steering Committee for the implementation of Social Insurance and Health Insurance, such as: assigning specific tasks to relevant sectors to achieve the goal of achieving 100% of students participating in Health Insurance; assigning targets for the rate of participation in Health Insurance of students to each school and including the criteria on the rate of participation in Health Insurance of students as one of the evaluation and classification criteria; supporting additional Health Insurance contributions for students; expanding and spreading the movement of joining hands to help of benefactors to support and give Health Insurance cards to students in difficult circumstances...

Continue to strengthen communication about Student Health Insurance, focusing on communication so that each parent and each student is deeply aware of the rights and obligations to participate in Health Insurance, through conveying contents about the humane nature of Health Insurance, the effectiveness of medical examination and treatment under Health Insurance for students, cases where the Health Insurance Fund pays high costs...

Social insurance at all levels closely coordinates with the Education and Training sector at the same level to organize conferences to review, evaluate, disseminate and propagate the Health Insurance policy to all schools; issue documents guiding schools in the area to organize the collection of Health Insurance for students in accordance with regulations. Direct schools to actively review and make lists of students eligible to participate in Health Insurance at school, implement procedures to ensure the correct and sufficient collection of Health Insurance for students in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Health Insurance.

Closely coordinate with the health sector, medical examination and treatment facilities and health insurance to ensure the rights to medical examination, treatment and health care for students.

PV: Thank you./.