Discussion group 2 of the Provincial People's Council: 'Hot' issue of resolving health insurance fund deficit

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of July 11, under the chairmanship of Mr. Hoang Van Phi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Secretary of Hung Nguyen District Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council delegates from the Vinh City and Hung Nguyen District constituencies conducted group discussions.

Overview of discussion session group 2. Photo: Thanh Duy

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The health sector needs to clearly demonstrate its role in handling the deficit of the health insurance fund.

Speaking at the discussion session, delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan - Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper assessed that the connection in medical examination and treatment has helped improve the quality of medical facilities and create favorable conditions for people.

However, the problem of health insurance fund deficit has emerged. The assessment that the reasons for the health insurance fund deficit are still general and not specific; while Vietnam Social Security has clearly identified 5 main reasons leading to health insurance fund deficit, delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan raised the issue:

“Have we focused on those 5 causes to resolve the problem for the Social Insurance and the Health sector? If we do not take action in a really drastic and drastic manner, it will greatly affect people with insurance cards and especially the quality of medical examination and treatment at medical facilities.”

Going into specifics about the shortcomings in handling the health insurance fund deficit, emphasizing the concern about payment that is "overshadowing" medical facilities in the province, delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan said that raising the issue of exceeding the ceiling and exceeding the fund with medical facilities is not satisfactory because when the line is open, people with health insurance cards have the right to choose medical facilities for medical examination and treatment.

On the other hand, according to delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan, the social insurance sector is worried about exceeding the fund and the ceiling, while hospitals are worried about how to avoid being paid. However, the health sector has almost not seen any professional participation, but is letting the social insurance sector and hospitals do it themselves.

“What is the role of the health sector in this story? Because the Social Insurance manages the fund, inspects and supervises the implementation at medical facilities in examination and treatment. But the health sector must act as an arbitrator, participating professionally in exceeding the ceiling and fund” - delegate Hong Toan proposed a solution.

Delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan speaks. Photo: Thanh Duy

Along with that, according to delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan, one of the reasons for the deficit in the health insurance fund is that salaries and wages are included in the price of medical services, leading to an increase in service prices. But will the health insurance premium increase? And if it does increase, it will be commensurate to ensure a balance with the increase in hospital fees and medical services.

The Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper believes that to solve the problem of increasing medical service prices and health insurance premiums, related documents are still being applied at different times, are not synchronized and cannot keep up with the increase in service prices, so it is necessary to have a solution to adjust related documents synchronously at the central level.

Endoscopic surgery at Thanh Chuong General Hospital. Photo courtesy

To resolve the deficit of the health insurance fund and create favorable conditions for medical facilities, delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan also said that it is necessary to review the regulations requiring individual practice certificates for doctors; at the same time, the delegate also disagreed with the social insurance sector's deep intervention in the expertise of medical facilities.

“The Ministry of Health reviews the list of drugs to treat a specific disease. However, Nghe An Social Insurance has an official dispatch requesting that doctors must prescribe cheap drugs, and using expensive drugs on that list will result in a bill,” said delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan.

Summarizing the issue, delegate Pham Thi Hong Toan suggested: "The province and the health sector must thoroughly deal with this issue, first of all, stabilizing hospitals in the face of concerns about billing to ensure the quality of medical examination and treatment for the people."

Specify which sectors and localities are causing the administrative reform index to "drop"

This is the opinion of delegate Tran Thanh Thuy - Director of Nghe An Telecommunications. Pointing out that the province's administrative reform index in 2016 decreased by 17 ranks compared to 2015, this delegate assessed that the administrative reform index is not sustainable.

From that reality, delegate Thanh Thuy suggested that it is necessary to strictly criticize and assign responsibility to sectors and localities in implementing administrative reforms.

Delegate Tran Thanh Thuy speaks. Photo: Thanh Duy

In particular, it is necessary to clearly state: "which sector or locality has affected the index, leading to it falling 17 places" - delegate Tran Thanh Thuy emphasized and said that in 2017, the province will evaluate and classify the administrative reform index of localities and sectors, but it is necessary to announce a very clear set of criteria.

On the other hand, this delegate also believes that it is necessary to promote the application of information technology in administrative reform. "We have good tools but if departments, agencies and branches do not participate, it will be a great waste" - delegate Thanh Thuy expressed.

Delegates also discussed enthusiastically many issues related to the implementation of growth targets for the last 6 months of the year, new rural construction, environmental pollution treatment, management of apartment building construction in Vinh City; vocational training, job creation, especially when student streaming has shown positive signs.

At the end of the discussion, Mr. Hoang Van Phi highly appreciated the delegates' opinions and said he would absorb them to synthesize and transfer to the Provincial People's Council in the discussion session at the hall./.

Thanh Duy