71.4% of Vietnam Population Covered with Health Insurance: VSIA

Vietnam Social Insurance Agency (VSIA) said that as of May 31, about 64.6 million people, or 71.4% of the total population, have bought health insurance, up 2.7 million from the same period last year, the Ha Noi Moi newspaper reported June 11. The number marks a slight increase from 62.8 million at end-April when many households said they had troubles buying the family insurance plan due to the cumbersome paperwork process. Pham Luong Son, head of the agency’s Health Insurance Policy Department, attributed the fall in number of health insurance buyers in the first quarter of this year to the festival season, during which many firms cut down their staff. When firms returned to work and boost production after March, more workers were hired and signed up for health insurance, Mr. Son said. He also noted that the number of family insurance subscribers in the January-May period increased 3% to over 300,000 buyers on year despite some hindrance in paperwork. VSIA collected VND19.589 trillion ($898.98 million) in health insurance payments, meeting 33.8% of the target, and covered healthcare services costing VND17.734 trillion for 50.1 million patients with insurance. Notably, over 40% of firms owe health insurance debts, with some localities having up to 20% of students not yet covered by health insurance. In late May, the Ministry of Health and VSIA agreed to check on provinces having a health insurance participation rate of below 60% in a bid to reach the target of having 75% of the country’s population on health insurance this year. The Amendments to the Law on Health Insurance (LoHI), which included reforms in administration and insurance buyer requirements, became effective on January 1, 2015. Vietnam spent roughly 6.6% of its GDP on healthcare in 2012, according to data from the World Health Organization, compared to 2% in Myanmar, 4.5% in Laos and 5.6% in Cambodia. (Ha Noi Moi – New Hanoi June 11 p5, vovgiaothong.vn June 11)