The Hanoitimes - The health and social insurance sector
plans to revise the health insurance law so that more of the population are
covered.
They plan to increase health
insurance coverage from the present 65% of the population to 75% by 2015 and to
90% by 2020.
Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim
Tien said the revision was necessary to tackle shortcomings in the law
introduced three years ago.
Ministry of Health statistics
show that about 35% of the population still are not covered by health
insurance.
Only about 50% of workers in
enterprises are covered, 18.9% of people near the poverty level – and 80% of
students.
Tien said that shortcomings
existed in payment policies or policies to bring medical services to these
groups.
The low quality of medical
services at the grass-roots level, complicated administrative procedures in
transferring patients to higher levels were also given as reasons why many
people did not want to get involved.
Inadequate awareness on health
insurance and low healthcare budgets were given as reasons for a shortage of
medical access for many, including farmers.
Deputy Director of the Vietnam
Insurance Agency Nguyen Minh Thao said that the health insurance law should be
modified to target groups of low-income earners or those working informally,
such as migrant labourers.
Making health insurance more
inclusive would also help hospitals provide a stable financial source for
examining and treating people, said Thao.
Statistics show that the numbers
of Vietnamese insured rose to 64.9 per cent at the end of last year, up 9 per
cent against 2010. The ministry estimated that the number would reach more than
69.1 million people by the end of this year.
The ministry is yet to produce a
detailed plan on the introduction of the revised law.
No comments:
Post a Comment