Health insurance coverage up, but targets remain difficult
The number of healthcare insurance holders in the country has thus far reached 64.6 million, accounting for 71.4 percent of the total population, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said at a teleconference on July 1.
The number of healthcare insurance holders in the country has thusfar reached 64.6 million, accounting for 71.4 percent of the totalpopulation, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said at a teleconferenceon July 1.
She said the latest estimation marks an increase of 2.7 million people over the same period last year.
Theteleconference, chaired by Deputy Prime Minster Vu Duc Dam, aimed toreview results after six months of implementing the amended HealthInsurance Law.
The ministry has set a target of health insurance coverage for 75 percent of total population by the end of this year.
Theministry has issued several instructions on implementing the HealthInsurance Law and carried out various measures to improve healthcareservices and minimise administrative procedures for health insuranceholders, the conference heard.
The application of IT inhealthcare service management and insurance payment has been carried outon a trial basis in some localities.
By the end of 2014, 34 of63 provinces were providing financial assistance for "near poor"households to purchase health insurance, the ministry said.
NguyenThi Minh, General Director of Vietnam Social Insurance, said that theagency has this year signed contracts with more than 2,000 healthcareinstitutions to provide services to insurance holders nationwide.
Inthe first half this year, the agency provided healthcare payments of 20trillion VND (917 million USD) for 60 million insurance holders, hesaid.
However, Minister Tien also said that many difficultiesstood in the way of having health insurance coverage expanded to 75percent of the population. Less than 60 percent of the residents in theprovinces of Nam Dinh, Tien Giang, Ca Mau, Dong Thap, Bac Lieu and AnGiang have health insurance, she said.
The health ministry hasfound that several provinces and cities have not included the healthinsurance target in their socio-economic development programmes.
Administrativeprocedures for purchasing health insurance were still troublesome andpeople still lacked information on the health insurance optionsavailable, she added.
Many enterprises were delaying and dodgingtheir responsibility for purchasing health insurance for theiremployees. The health ministry estimates that about 49 percent ofemployees nationwide do not have health insurance coverage, but noeffective solutions have been found to solve this problem.
DeputyPM Dam praised the ministry's achievements in expanding healthinsurance coverage, and asked it to cooperate further with VietnamSocial Insurance as well as local administrations to reach the targetsof 75 percent and 80 percent of the total population having healthinsurance by the end of this year and 2020, respectively.
In thesecond half of this year, the Health Ministry and Vietnam SocialInsurance will implement several measures to increase the percentage ofhealth insurance participants and provide more assistance to poorhouseholds in rural areas, the conference heard.-VNA
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