Vietnam’s insurance sector has seen a stellar increase in the rate of health insurance coverage nationwide in the first five months of the year with an additional 2.7 million insurance contracts.

Pham Luong Son, an official from the Vietnam Social Security, made the statement at a press conference held in Hanoi on June 10, refuting claims of a fall in health insurance coverage rates.

He said that since the outset of the year, over 300,000 people sought family health insurance packages, rising 3 percent from the same period last year.

The process to purchase family health insurance involves one member of the family shelling out 4.5 percent of their basic salary. Insurance costs for the second, third and fourth participants in the family will be 70 percent, 60 percent and 50 percent of the amount paid by the first member, respectively. From the fifth member of the family on, their insurance rate amounts to 40 percent of the first member’s cost.

The Vietnam Social Security will work with the Ministry of Health to address family health insurance issues for migrant labourers and plans to open more insurance agent offices towards bringing health insurance coverage to 75 percent.

By May 31, there were 64.6 million health insurance participants, accounting for 71.4 percent of the total population. Health insurance funds have covered 17.7 trillion VND (823.3 million USD) in healthcare costs for 50.1 million people.-VNA