(VOVworld)- The policy on health insurance policy has been in place in Vietnam for nearly 20 years. At their session last weekend, National Assembly deputies said the policy on health insurance has become a pillar of social security. In the near future, Vietnam will make further reforms to ensure that the policy on health insurance benefits people more.
Reports by the National Assembly Standing Committee show the effectiveness of the Party and State policy on caring for people’s health over the past 20 years. As a result of this policy the number of health insurance beneficiaries has increased 8.6% in the last four years. State funding allocated for health care rose from 4.5 trillion VND in 2009 to nearly 17 trillion VND last year.
Pillar policy of social security
In 2009, the health insurance fund had a deficit of 3 trillion VND. Three years later, it had a surplus of nearly 13 trillion VND. About 70% of Vietnam’s population has health insurance and Vietnam is moving steadily towards the goal of universal access to health insurance. Nguyen Van Tien is Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs: “In 20 years of implementing the policy on health insurance and 4 years of implementing the Health Insurance Law, Vietnam has made significant progress. Though Vietnamese people remain poor, with a per capita income of about 1,700 USD, 70% of Vietnam’s population has health insurance. The State has managed to ensure social security by helping ethnic minority people, children under 6, the elderly and social beneficiaries get health insurance”.
By implementing the policy on health insurance, making hospitals more self-reliant and socializing hospitals, modern medical equipment has been made available to improve the quality of medical treatment.
Continuing to improve management, human resources and policy
The policy on health insurance calls for further improvement of management, human resources and policies. Mr. Tien says: “We must separate uninsured treatment sections from insured treatment sections. We need to enhance transparency in public hospitals to avoid confusion between public and private and abusing state assets. We need to organize separate uninsured treatment sections with separate staffs and funding. The state also needs to provide funding for hospitals to build uninsured treatment sections.”
Regarding human resources, Mr. Tien said: “We need independent health insurance appraisals. In 2008, the National Assembly discussed the Health Insurance Law and many deputies proposed establishing appraisal teams. In the meantime, we need to improve the quality and quantity of appraisal staff which now numbers 2,000. The Ministry of Health should get involved in ensuring equality between insured and uninsured treatment”.
The National Assembly will amend the Law on Health Insurance at the ongoing 6th session of the 13th National Assembly. The Government has presented the National Assembly a proposal on uniform health service prices in hospitals of the same level. Vietnam is now fine-tuning its policies to better ensure people’s interest when they buying health insurance.