The effectiveness of collection agents in developing social insurance and health insurance participants

There are 920 collection agents with 1,711 collection points/477 communes, wards and towns
In 2018, the provincial Social Insurance has promoted the development of the collection agent network system. This is demonstrated through the signing of action programs with sectors, political and social organizations, economic organizations in the area such as the Provincial Farmers' Association, the Women's Union, the Fatherland Front Committee... On that basis, the provincial Social Insurance has issued documents directing the Social Insurance of districts, towns and cities to work with organizations: the Women's Union, the Farmers' Association, the Fatherland Front Committee, the People's Committees of communes, wards and towns and other organizations to sign contracts to act as collection agents, ensuring that each commune, ward and town has at least 3 types of collection agents in operation.

Cua Lo Town Social Insurance cooperates with post office collection agents to guide customers to buy voluntary social insurance. Photo: Duc Anh

From that approach, in 2018, the provincial Social Insurance developed 398 new collection agents, bringing the total number of collection agents in the province to 920 with 1,711 collection points/477 communes, wards and towns. The People's Committees of communes, wards and towns, organizations, unions, political and social organizations... have assigned prestigious, high-ranking and responsible officials and civil servants to work as collection agents such as the presidents and vice presidents of the Women's Union, Farmers' Association, Fatherland Front, cultural and social officials... In many localities, the Party Committees and authorities are very interested in the work of developing voluntary health insurance and social insurance participants and have directed, implemented and supported the collection agents to complete their tasks well.

As an area with many people doing business, to increase the effectiveness of propaganda work for people to participate in voluntary health insurance and social insurance, we have coordinated with organizations such as the Farmers' Association, the Women's Union... to organize propaganda sessions in the evening through association activities. With this method, people will access information more effectively. Quote

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha - Social Insurance Collection Agent of Cua Lo Town Post Office

From the development of the network of collection agents, the propaganda and dissemination of social insurance and health insurance policies have been strengthened, both in content and form, so people have understood and deeply recognized the humanity and effectiveness of participating in social insurance and health insurance, so they have actively participated. After a period of operation, the agency staff have gained a lot of experience in propaganda and mobilization work, fully and promptly grasped the regulations on social insurance and health insurance regimes and policies as well as in calculating the amount to collect and making records.

In addition, the administrative procedures of the Social Insurance industry are regularly reformed, so the participation records are becoming simpler and more convenient. The complete lookup data on the Vietnam Social Insurance portal is a convenient tool for agents to look up information about participants. The commission rate is adjusted to increase annually, which is a motivation for collection agents to work more actively.

To make it more convenient for people to access the collection agent network system, every month, the provincial Social Insurance pushes data on collection agent staff to the provincial Social Insurance's electronic information portal.

Focus on increasing voluntary social insurance coverage

As one of the units with initiatives and good practices in developing voluntary social insurance participants, to ensure the target, in 2018, Cua Lo town Social Insurance coordinated with Nghi Hoa ward Farmers' Association and social insurance and health insurance collection agents to organize propaganda, mobilization and voluntary social insurance collection sessions in residential areas of Nghi Hoa ward (Cua Lo town). The method is to both propagate, answer questions, guide participation procedures and receive documents, collect voluntary social insurance contributions right at the venue.

The new point is that there has been a close division of labor and coordination between the Farmers' Association, the Social Insurance agency and the collection agents in the propaganda sessions. Specifically, the Farmers' Associations are responsible for inviting people to attend; Social Insurance officers are responsible for the propaganda content; answering questions; guiding the registration procedures; the collection agents receive documents and collect voluntary social insurance contributions right at the propaganda locations; in case they have not brought money, they will come to the house to collect the money the next day.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ngoc - Director of Social Insurance of Cua Lo town. Photo: Duc Anh

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ngoc - Director of Cua Lo Town Social Insurance said: The important thing is that after organizing the propaganda conference, most of the people participating understood the Party and State's policies and guidelines on voluntary social insurance. After 10 propaganda sessions, 51 people registered and paid to participate in voluntary social insurance. From this effectiveness, Cua Lo Town Social Insurance is spreading the method to other wards in the area, such as Nghi Hai ward in the first 3 months of 2019, and in the next period it will be deployed in other wards.

Nghe An is a province with a large population, abundant labor resources and many opportunities to develop voluntary social insurance. However, up to this point, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance has only reached 31,148 people, many of whom have participated in compulsory social insurance so they continue to pay to have enough time to receive pension, the subject of retired farmers transferred to...

Procedures for purchasing voluntary social insurance are quick and simple, helping people feel secure when participating. Photo: Duc Anh

On the Social Insurance side, the goal is to have about 50% of the workforce participating in Social Insurance by the end of 2020. To achieve that goal, in 2019, the Provincial Social Insurance will focus on the following solutions: Improving the capacity, expertise, sense of responsibility, attitude, and service awareness of the staff and civil servants; Continuing to promote propaganda and mobilization activities focusing on groups of potential participants. The main content focuses on the advantages of the voluntary social insurance policy and the significance of participating in family health insurance.

For voluntary social insurance, focus on 4 groups of subjects: group of subjects reserving payment period and subjects receiving unemployment benefits; group of workers with labor contracts of less than 1 month, contract of lease, part-time village and hamlet cadres; members of associations, unions, socio-political organizations, small traders; group of self-employed workers of agricultural, forestry and fishery households.

The software system regularly updates social insurance participants. Photo: Duc Anh

For household health insurance: Focus on propagating to groups of members of associations such as women, farmers, youth unions, small traders who have not registered their businesses... People who do not have health insurance cards in households doing agriculture, forestry, fishery, salt production; people on the list approved for near-poor households and agricultural, forestry, salt production, fishery households with average living standards according to Government regulations.

The Social Insurance sector will continue to advise the Party Committee and the Government to include the development target of voluntary social insurance and family health insurance in the socio-economic development target. Continue to coordinate with the Provincial Post Office to organize conferences and propaganda to villages and hamlets. Focus on training and retraining for collection agents to meet work requirements. Timely supplement, replace and arrange collection agents who have not completed their tasks for 2 consecutive years.