Hanoi (VNA) – Increasing health
insurance coverage among people is an important solution that helps build a
democratic, equal, prosperous and happy society, said Prime Minister Nguyen
Xuan Phuc.
The government leader was speaking at an event
co-hosted by the Vietnam Social Insurance (VSI) and the Health Ministry in
Hanoi on June 30 to mark Vietnam Health Insurance Day (July 1).
The Party and State always pay attention to protecting
and caring for public heath, he said, citing the issuance of a range of
relevant policies and guidelines aiming to help the public overcome risks and
cut medical costs.
However, the PM pointed out the fact that there remained
almost 20 million Vietnamese people who have yet to be covered by health
insurance, many of them are from disadvantaged groups or meet difficulties in the
daily life.
Against the backdrop, the leader requested Party
Committees, administrations at all levels, ministries and agencies to complete
relevant mechanisms and policies, prioritising household health insurance
coverage for those working in agriculture, fishery and salt sectors.
He stressed the need to ensure equality of
medical check-ups and treatment covered by insurance at public and private
hospitals, saying that the participation of private hospitals in this field would
help reduce the overload at higher-level hospitals as well as wastefulness.
Apart from fast-tracking administrative reform
in order to make it easier for citizens to access health insurance and medical
services, it is necessary to increase the application of information-technology
in implementing health insurance policies, he said.
PM Phuc also underlined the responsibility of
businesses, organisations and individuals to pay health insurance for their
employees in line with the Law on Health Insurance.
The leader called for joint efforts to enable
people in difficult circumstances to access health insurance, thus reaching the
target of up to 90 percent of the population covered by health insurance by
2020.
VSI General Director Nguyen Thi Minh reported
that more than 76 million Vietnamese people have to date participated in health
insurance and about 75 million time-people benefited from the Health Insurance
Fund in the first half of this year.
Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said her
ministry has synchronously carried out specific measures to improve the quality
of medical checks-up and treatment.
She said projects to ease the overload at
hospitals and build satellite hospitals, along with regulations on
administrative reform and improvement of health workers’ behaviours towards
patients have proven effective.
On this occasion, the VSI presented 1.5 billion
VND (66,015 USD) to the poor, helping them access health insurance.-VNA