Difficult to develop household health insurance

As of October 2019, the province had 98.6 percent of its population buying health insurance. According to the assessment of the Vietnam Social Security, Bac Giang is one of the leading localities nationwide in expanding health insurance coverage. Despite achieving positive results, the provincial social insurance agency has always focused on implementing solutions to continue raising the coverage rate.

Preparing for anesthesia for a patient at the Bac Giang Tumour Hospital.

Than Duc Lai, Director of the provincial social insurance agency, said that reviewing three years (2016-2019) of implementing the development of health insurance participants, the agency found that the percentage of people participating in health insurance was high but not stable and sustainable.

According to the Revenue Management Department under the provincial Social Security Agency, of the 1,672 million health insurance card buyers, 78 percent have been supported by the State with 20-100 percent of the payment. The development of household health insurance was very difficult, with a low percentage of participants despite reduced premiums. From the second participant in a household, the premiums will decrease gradually.

Investing in improving services

The province now has 263 medical establishments accepting health insurance. Over the past years, the quality of medical check-up and treatment with health insurance has improved markedly, but the ability to provide specialized techniques remains limited, failing to meet the increasing demands of the people, especially at the grassroots level.

Labours discuss about health insurance policy at the forum held by the provincial Social Insurance.

Attention has been paid to investing in medical facilities and equipment but they are yet to be synchronous and modern. There are no suitable policies to attract good medical staff. As a result, many people have health insurance cards but do not use them to treat common diseases.

According to Tu Quoc Hieu, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Health, medical establishments now give priority to patients with health insurance cards. There is no discrimination against those people. However, due to cumbersome procedures, patients using health insurance cards have to wait longer than those who pay for examination services, while patients are always too crowded.

Many doctors who directly engage in treatment said the list of health insurance drugs is limited, so when prescribing for patients with health insurance, there are fewer types of medicine. Meanwhile, when treating patients on demand, it is easy for them to prescribe some specific, expensive drugs that may be outside the list of health insurance drugs.

In order to solve existing problems, maintain the coverage rate and continue increasing the number of participants, the provincial steering committee for development of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance participants has determined the need to both develop health insurance card holders and improve quality of health services. 

The health sector has been urged to gradually improve its ability to provide quality health services to meet the increasing demand for medical check-up and treatment, especially in mountainous and remote areas.

To ensure the universal health insurance goal is fulfilled, with 99 percent of the people in the province participating in by 2020, in the immediate future, authorities at all levels, sectors and localities should focus on developing household health insurance and maintaining groups holding health insurance cards sustainably.

In 2020, the provincial budget will continue to support those working in the agriculture and forestry sectors with average living standards and near-poor households to buy health insurance cards. 

The social insurance agencies of districts and city will focus on training professional skills for health insurance agents and guiding them how to complete procedures quickly; strengthen inspection and examination of the implementation of legal regulations on health insurance in enterprises, strictly handle acts of health insurance payment evasion and delay, frauds and profiteering.

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Minh Thu