Humanitarian policies of health insurance

There are cases where the cost of medical examination and treatment is up to hundreds of millions of VND/person/treatment period... All thanks to the humane policy of health insurance.

“Lifebuoy” for the poor

Mr. Hoang Van Minh - DirectorSocial insuranceNghe An affirms that thanks to participating in and having a health insurance card, many unfortunate cases of accidents and illnesses have overcome difficult times when the health insurance fund covers the costs of medical examination and treatment, even some patients have medical examination and treatment costs up to hundreds of millions of VND/treatment period.

Specifically, Mr. Tran Duc M.'s household in Quynh Luu district - a poor household in the commune, Mr. M. unfortunately suffered from chronic kidney failure, stage 5, extracorporeal dialysis (artificial kidney) secondary hypertension, the doctor prescribed a kidney transplant. To have money for a kidney transplant for a poor family like Mr. M. is impossible. However, thanks to health insurance that paid Mr. M. 236,279,777 VND - a dream amount for his family, Mr. M.'s treatment process was more favorable, his health gradually recovered.

Also in the case of dialysis, Mr. Nguyen Van N. in Nam Dan town was paid 140,883,075 VND by health insurance; or in the case of Ms. Nguyen Thi H. in Quynh Luu who was paralyzed for unknown reasons, had spinal cord damage at C1-C6 due to autoimmune myelitis, kidney failure, and lung failure, during the treatment, health insurance paid Ms. H. 192,924,238 VND.

Not only timely payment of health insurance costs for patients with serious illnesses, in the first 5 months of 2023 alone, health insurance has paid medical examination and treatment costs for 2,263,974 people, of which 1,950,656 people were examined and treated as outpatients and 313,318 people were examined and treated as inpatients. The average cost of one outpatient examination and treatment is 310,970 VND; the average cost of one inpatient examination and treatment is 4,387,902 VND. The total cost of medical examination and treatment under health insurance is 1,981 billion VND (of which outpatient costs are 606 billion VND, inpatient costs are 1,374 billion VND. The cost of other facilities and proposed treatment is more than 1,800 billion VND.

From these specific cases, it can be affirmed that the health insurance policy has gradually promoted its role as one of the main pillars of the social security system; an important health financing mechanism to help people avoid falling into poverty and deadlock when they are sick; a lifebuoy for patients, contributing to reducing the burden of medical examination and treatment costs for people, especially poor patients.

Strengthen communication work

Health insurance policy has been implemented since 1992 by issuing Government decrees on health insurance implementation. In 2008, the Law on Health Insurance was passed by the 12th National Assembly. On June 16, 2009, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 823/QD-TTg on taking July 1 every year as "Vietnam Health Insurance Day". This shows the importance of health insurance, this is a top important social policy, with humanitarian significance and profound community sharing, which is highly valued by our Party and State, always promoted in the social security policy system.

In order to achieve the goal of universal health insurance, over the past time, the Provincial Social Insurance has always received the attention and close direction of the Vietnam Social Insurance, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee, the effective coordination of departments, branches, sectors, organizations, Party committees, and authorities at all levels in implementing health insurance policies in the locality. In addition, the flexible and synchronous application of solutions, especially promoting the communication of policies and laws on health insurance, along with the practical role of health insurance policies, has helped people gradually become more fully aware of the humane nature of health insurance; thereby, proactively participating as an effective preventive measure to take care of the health of individuals as well as family members. Thanks to that, the number of people participating in health insurance is increasing.

By the end of April 2023, the whole province had 2,995,949 people participating in social insurance, health insurance, voluntary social insurance, unemployment insurance, of which: Social insurance was 374,764 people, an increase of 6,459 people compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 22.30% of the working-age labor force; Unemployment insurance was 243,822 people, an increase of 7,900 people compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 14.51% of the labor force; Health insurance was 2,885,885 people, an increase of 29,726 people compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 92.34% of the population; The number of students participating in health insurance reached 97.92%.

Mr. Hoang Van Minh - Director of Nghe An Social Insurance affirmed: To help people better understand the humane policies of health insurance, in the coming time, Social Insurance will continue to promote communication activities on the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws on health insurance, towards the goal of implementing universal health insurance; strengthen communication on the humaneness and humanity of health insurance policies... Thereby, raising awareness of the rights, responsibilities and obligations of all organizations and individuals in complying with health insurance policies and laws towards the goal of universal health insurance./.