Coordination programme to promote insurance coverage expansion

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

The Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) and the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) should devise a coordination programme to popularise legal regulations on social insurance and encourage people to join the social welfare network, said Politburo member and VFF President Nguyen Thien Nhan.

At a working session with the VSS in Hanoi on August 7, Nhan said he hopes the two sides will hasten preparations towards signing a coordination programme framework as early as mid-September this year.

He said though the target of over 80 percent of the population buying medical insurance is feasible, it will be challenging to have 50 percent of the total labourers join social insurance by 2020.

A VSS report revealed that the number of people applying for social, health and unemployment insurances have been on the rise over recent years. By late June 2015, those covered by health insurance totalled 65.2 million (or 71.9 percent of the population) while unemployment insurance users numbered 9.85 million.

However, only 11.66 million people bought compulsory social insurance, accounting for some 20 percent of those mandated to buy this kind of insurance.

A number of problems are impeding the expansion of insurance coverage, including employers dodging paying employee premiums and insurance fraud at medical facilities.

At the event, VSS General Director Nguyen Thi Minh called for stronger VFF participation in encouraging people to buy social and health insurance and monitoring the implementation of health insurance policies at major hospitals.-VNA