The 35-year-old haemophilia patient from the southern province of Vinh Long racked up medical costs which were covered by public health insurance fund at a record rate – nearly 13 billion VND (560,000 USD).

According to the Vietnam Social Security, the country’s health insurance fund paid more than 4.5 billion VND for the patient’s treatment in HCM City’s Cho Ray Hospital in 2017, another 7 billion VND in 2018 and nearly 1.4 billion VND in the first five months of this year.

According to the Vietnam Social Security, Vietnam has 83.4 million health insurance cardholders, accounting for 88.1 percent of its population.

The payment marked a record amount that public health insurance fund has ever covered for an individual’s medical treatment since the early 1990s when Vietnam’s first health insurance policies were passed.

As the patient is from a poor family he is eligible to get free health insurance, meaning that the State’s budget was spent to buy health insurance for him. Besides those from poor families, people in 19 other groups are also eligible for the incentive including children under 6 six years old, elderly over 80 years old, people from ethnic groups living in disadvantaged areas, certificated unemployed people and people who contributed to national revolutions.

Meanwhile, the Government pays 70 percent of health insurance fees to help people from near-poor households to get insurance cards. The yearly public health insurance fee in Vietnam is 750,600 VND (32 USD).

Comparing the two numbers – 750,600 VND and 13 billion VND, many people would be surprised and understand more about the meaning of health insurance participation, especially those in disadvantaged situations.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Mai, head of Haemophilia Centre under National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, said patients with haemophilia suffered the blood disorder disease for the whole of their lives and must undergo medical treatment for long periods.

She said their medical cost was about 400,000-500,000 million VND on average yearly and patients at serious stages of the disease required treatment that could cost billions of Vietnamese dong each year.

By the end of this year’s first quarter, health insurance cardholders registered more than 41.7 million doctor’s visit, an increase of 1.47 million visits compared to those of the same period last year.

Health insurance fund paid nearly 227 trillion VND, about 794 billion VND more than that of the same period last year. Vietnam expects to have 95 percent of its population join health insurance by 2025.

Health insurance covers 87.7% of population, exceeding yearly target

The health sector fulfilled two targets set by the National Assembly and the Government, with the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people at 26.5 and the health insurance coverage rate of 87.7%.

98.5 percent of population covered by health insurance

(BGO) – A meeting was held on December 18 by the Steering Board for the project that executes the health insurance (HI) for the whole resident by 2020 so as to conclude the Action month to call for the residents’ HI participation in 2019 (November 2018). The event was chaired by Le Anh Duong, Vice Chairman of the Bac Giang provincial People’s Committee, Head of the Steering Board. 

Compulsary social insurance premium to be adjusted

   

Efforts made to observe rights of foreign workers’ social insurance

Bilateral agreements for a new generation of social insurance policy have been negotiated to support foreign workers engaging in Vietnam’s social insurance scheme, said Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) Dao Viet Anh.

Action month launched to call for people’s participation in health insurance

(BGO) – The Action month (November) has been launched in all of city and districts in the northern province of Bac Giang from October 31 to November 2 in order to call for the whole resident to participate in health insurance (HI) in 2019. 

Source: VNS/VNA