The Government has targeted over 90 percent of nationwide population covered with health insurance by 2020 (Photo: hanoimoi.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - The Government has targeted over 90 percentof nationwide population covered with health insurance by 2020. Despitepreferential policies to encourage citizens to buy health insurance, the numberof health insurance card holders, especially household health insurance,remains low due to red tape.
Without health insurance, Hoang Thi Yen, renting a house inHCM City’s District 2, had to pay over 60 million VND (2,700 USD) for legsurgery, Tin Tuc (News) reported.
“To buy household health insurance, I have to bring thefamily register book of my landlord and all health insurance cards of thefamily members to the ward authority. Then I have to register for temporaryresidence. However, my landlord’s family has yet to buy health insurance cardsso I cannot buy it,” she said.
Prolonged waiting time is another challenge for healthinsurance card holders.
Tran Thi Bon from Thu Duc District in HCM City, said “Ihave to wait for the whole day for each health check-up.”
Getting bored of waiting, she decided to buy a healthcheck-up service without health insurance.
To increase public access to health insurance and to meetthe above target, Ha Van Thuy, Deputy Head of the Health InsuranceDepartment under the Health Ministry, saidthat the ministry has issued a set of hospital quality criteria which placepatients at the centre of hospital services.
Health insurance covers almost 80 percent of Vietnam’spopulation now.
According to Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the HCM CityHealth Department, the city’s healthcare sector has worked with the city’shealth insurance to cut down unnecessary procedures so as to improve healthcareexamination and treatment but still ensure quality.
The waiting time of patients to see a doctor has been cutfrom 120-480 minutes to 30-120 minutes.
According to TinTuc newspaper, hospitals inHCM City have bought state-of-the-art technology to better serve patients.Eighteen hospitals in the city have newly installed health check-up booking viaa hotline. “We are looking forward to smart health insurance cards (electronic)to replace current paper cards,” Binh said.
Cho Ray Hospital, Gia Dinh Nhan Dan Hospital and thehospital of Thu Duc District in HCM City have installed automatic queue ticket dispenser machines and have staffto instruct patients at health check-up rooms.
According to Doctor Nguyen Minh Quan, Director of Thu DucDistrict hospital, to reduce waiting time, prescriptions are typed out oncomputers. Also, the doctors’ consultation time for patients is longer.
In addition, the healthinsurance sector made amendments to the health insurance regulations to providecard holders with additional benefits, Thuy said.
Accordingly, low-income card holders will enjoy 95 to 100 percentof health insurance. Near-poor people will have coverage of 80 to 95 percent.
Since January 1 this year, new regulations statethat patients who register for health insurance cards at a ward-levelmedical clinic can enjoy health insurance benefits at any district clinic orhospital in the country.
Under household health insurance, the first card holder ofthe household will have to pay 100 percent of the insurance cost. The secondone has to pay 70 percent. The third, fourth and fifth card holders have to pay60, 50 and 40 percent, respectively.
Household health insurance will cover 80 percent ofhospital fees for health examination or hospital beds. In case of seriousdiseases and high treatment cost, the health insurance will cover 50 to 75 percentof expenses.-VNA
VNA
