PM stresses significance of health insurance for all people

The government leader was speaking at an event co-hosted by the Vietnam Social Insurance (VSI) and the Health Ministry in Hanoi on June 30 to mark Vietnam Health Insurance Day (July 1).
 

The Party and State always pay attention to protecting and caring for public heath, he said, citing the issuance of a range of relevant policies and guidelines aiming to help the public overcome risks and cut medical costs.

However, the PM pointed out the fact that there remained almost 20 million Vietnamese people who have yet to be covered by health insurance, many of them are from disadvantaged groups or meet difficulties in the daily life.

Against the backdrop, the leader requested Party Committees, administrations at all levels, ministries and agencies to complete relevant mechanisms and policies, prioritising household health insurance coverage for those working in agriculture, fishery and salt sectors.

He stressed the need to ensure equality of medical check-ups and treatment covered by insurance at public and private hospitals, saying that the participation of private hospitals in this field would help reduce the overload at higher-level hospitals as well as wastefulness.

Apart from fast-tracking administrative reform in order to make it easier for citizens to access health insurance and medical services, it is necessary to increase the application of information-technology in implementing health insurance policies, he said.

PM Phuc also underlined the responsibility of businesses, organisations and individuals to pay health insurance for their employees in line with the Law on Health Insurance.

The leader called for joint efforts to enable people in difficult circumstances to access health insurance, thus reaching the target of up to 90 percent of the population covered by health insurance by 2020.

VSI General Director Nguyen Thi Minh reported that more than 76 million Vietnamese people have to date participated in health insurance and about 75 million time-people benefited from the Health Insurance Fund in the first half of this year.

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said her ministry has synchronously carried out specific measures to improve the quality of medical checks-up and treatment.

She said projects to ease the overload at hospitals and build satellite hospitals, along with regulations on administrative reform and improvement of health workers’ behaviours towards patients have proven effective.

On this occasion, the VSI presented 1.5 billion VND (66,015 USD) to the poor, helping them access health insurance.-