Increased hospital fees for people who do not have health insurance
(Baonghean.vn) - According to the draft adjustment of medical examination and treatment service prices, people who do not participate in health insurance will have to pay the price equal to the maximum level prescribed in Circular No. 37/2018 of the Ministry of Health. This price is basically adjusted to increase from 1,150,000 VND to 1,390,000 VND.
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| Making hospital payment procedures at Nghe An Provincial General Hospital. Photo: Thanh Son |
Reasonable increase
Assigned by the People's Council and People's Committee of Nghe An province, the Department of Health is currently drafting a Resolution to submit to the Provincial People's Council for approval of regulations on prices of medical examination and treatment services not covered by the new Health Insurance Fund. According to this draft, people who do not participate in health insurance will have to pay the price equal to the maximum level prescribed in Circular No. 37/2018 of the Ministry of Health. This price is basically only adjusted to increase from VND 1,150,000 to VND 1,390,000.
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| Resolution No. 24/2017 of Nghe An Provincial People's Council. Photo: Thanh Chung |
Adjusting this price is very necessary. Because currently, people who have not participated in health insurance when going to medical examination and treatment facilities in Nghe An are charged according to the price prescribed in Resolution No. 24/2017 of the People's Council of Nghe An province. Resolution No. 24 was built according to Circular No. 02/2017, Circular No. 44/2017 of the Ministry of Health on the regulation of the maximum price range of medical examination and treatment services not covered by the Health Insurance Fund in state medical examination facilities.
Meanwhile, in 2018, the Ministry of Health issued two new circulars, Circulars No. 37 and 39, regulating the prices of new health insurance examination and treatment services and the maximum price range for medical examination and treatment services not covered by the Health Insurance Fund. When the two circulars of the Ministry of Health took effect in early 2019, the problem occurred that people who had not participated in health insurance when going to public health facilities in Nghe An only paid for many medical examination and treatment services at a lower level than the price of people with health insurance cards, while both subjects enjoyed the same quality of service.
Thus, the current price is no longer suitable for the actual situation, does not meet the costs to ensure the operation of public medical examination and treatment facilities; and is not suitable for the goal of encouraging people to participate in health insurance.
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| Some prices stipulated in Resolution No. 24. Photo: Thanh Chung |
In fact, applying the maximum level stipulated in Circular No. 37/2018 of the Ministry of Health, people who do not participate in health insurance in Nghe An will only have to pay a small amount more than the old price (according to Resolution No. 24/2017). And there are even some medical examination and treatment services with new prices that are lower than the old prices. Services with new prices lower than the old prices are regular services, services with new prices higher than the old prices are high-tech services.
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| Some prices specified in Circular 37. Photo: Thanh Chung |
According to Circular No. 37/2018 of the Ministry of Health, the maximum price for medical examination services for people who have not participated in health insurance at special-class hospitals is 37,000 VND, at grade 1 hospitals is 37,000 VND, at grade 2 hospitals is 33,000 VND, at grade 3 hospitals is 29,000 VND, at grade 4 hospitals is 26,000 VND, at commune health stations is 26,000 VND...
According to Resolution No. 24/2017, the price of medical examination services at special-class hospitals is 39,000 VND, at grade 1 hospitals is 39,000 VND, at grade 2 hospitals is 35,000 VND, at grade 3 hospitals is 21,000 VND, at grade 4 hospitals is 29,000 VND, and at commune health stations is 29,000 VND.
No impact on social security
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| Performing advanced techniques in medical examination and treatment at Nghe An Orthopedic Trauma Hospital. Photo: Tu Thanh |
To date, the agencies, organizations and localities consulted have all agreed with the draft Resolution. The drafting agency has not received any feedback from the people on the draft.
Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh - Director of Nghe An Department of Health said: After completing the draft Resolution, on March 6, 2019, Nghe An Department of Health sent an official dispatch requesting a number of agencies, organizations and 21 localities in the province to participate in commenting on the draft. At the same time, on March 8, 2019, the Department of Health posted information on the Department's and the province's electronic information portal to solicit public comments within 30 days. Up to now, the agencies, organizations and localities consulted all agree with the draft Resolution. The drafting agency has not received any feedback from the public on the draft.
Adjusting the prices of medical examination and treatment services not covered by the Health Insurance Fund helps state-owned medical examination and treatment facilities in the province to be more proactive in ensuring budget sources to implement the autonomy roadmap as prescribed. Medical examination and treatment facilities have the conditions to arrange funds to invest in facilities, purchase equipment to serve their work, improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, and meet the needs of local people.
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| Health check-up for patients at Vinh City General Hospital. Photo: Ho Phuong |
The price adjustment basically does not have a big impact on people in the province, especially on poor households, ethnic minorities living in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, people living in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions, children under 6 years old...
Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Dinh Chinh affirmed: “The price adjustment basically does not have a big impact on people in the province, especially on people from poor households, ethnic minorities living in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, people living in areas with especially difficult socio-economic conditions, children under 6 years old, social policy beneficiaries, people from near-poor households because these subjects have been purchased or supported by the State to buy health insurance cards...
The affected subjects (people who have not participated in health insurance) are mainly small traders and individual businesses, basically with average or higher income and living standards.
Therefore, this price increase will not affect social security and is consistent with the general market price level as prescribed by the Law on Prices.
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| Circular 37 of the Ministry of Health. Photo: Thanh Chung |
As of December 31, 2018, the rate of people participating in health insurance in the province was 2,778,453/3,131,292 people, reaching 88.7% of the province's population.
The price adjustment will contribute to encouraging people to participate in health insurance. Mr. Thai Ba Thang - Head of Health Insurance Appraisal Department, Nghe An Social Insurance said: "The adjustment aims to create fairness in the payment of medical examination and treatment services; at the same time, it contributes to raising people's awareness of the humanity in participating in health insurance and responding to the implementation of the Party and State's policy on universal health insurance, aiming to achieve the goal of having over 95% of the province's population participating in health insurance by 2020.
On April 22, the People's Committee of Nghe An province held a meeting to listen to and give opinions on the draft Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on regulating the prices of medical examination and treatment services not covered by the Health Insurance Fund in state-owned medical examination and treatment facilities in Nghe An province. Basically, the draft Resolution has received high consensus and agreement and will be submitted to the Provincial People's Council for approval in the next session.
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| Treatment for patients not covered by the Health Insurance Fund at Vinh City General Hospital. Photo: Ho Phuong |
The information about adjusting the price of medical examination and treatment services not covered by the Health Insurance Fund actually does not surprise many people.
Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung, 37 years old, in Vinh city said: “I am self-employed and have participated in health insurance for 5 years now. In my opinion, adjusting the price of medical examination and treatment services that are not covered by the health insurance fund is very reasonable. When the salary structure changes, adjusting the price of medical services accordingly is necessary. Moreover, in reality, the new price for people who do not participate in health insurance is only the same as the price currently applied to people with health insurance cards like us.”
What Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung and many other people want is: The capacity, quality, and effectiveness of medical examination and treatment; the service spirit and attitude of medical facilities and medical staff need to be improved accordingly. When the price of medical examination and treatment services is calculated correctly and fully, hospitals need to overcome the current situation of patients having to share beds and having to work hard to transfer to other facilities./.
