This has contributed to ensuring social welfare and earning public trust regarding social and health insurance policies. As we begin the New Year 2024, the VSS news portal reviews the top 10 achievements that the sector made during the previous year.

1.Active engagement of grassroots-level authorities in implementing social and health insurance policies

100 per cent of communes, districts and provinces across the country established steering committees on implementing social insurance and health insurance policies.

There are currently 10,595 commune-level steering committees. Sixty out of 63 provinces and cities have integrated the health insurance coverage goal into the local socio-economic development targets.

Twenty-two out of 63 provinces and cities mobilised local budget to support voluntary social insurance card holders while 62 localities spent the local budget to cover health insurance.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Those efforts have demonstrated the involvement of the whole political system in realising the universal social and health insurance coverage target following the Party resolutions.

2.Increasing insurance coverage, sustainable growth of health insurance participation amid economic development falling behind expectations

In 2023, production, business and livelihoods continued to face difficulties, directly affecting the sector’s target implementation, especially participant network expansion. However, with the determination to turn challenges into motivation for action, VSS drastically took synchronous solutions and achieved positive results, for example, increasing the number of participants in social insurance and health insurance; successfully completing assigned tasks.

About 18.26 million people joined social insurance in 2023, accounting for 39.25 per cent of the working age population. Among those, about 1.83 million are voluntary participants, covering 3.92 per cent of the working age population and exceeding the target of 1.42 per cent.

There were 14.7 million people applying for unemployment insurance last year, covering nearly 31.6 per cent of the working age population.

The health insurance coverage has grown sustainable throughout the years, increasing from 91.01 per cent in 2021 to 92.04 per cent in 2022.

In 2023, health insurance covered 93.3 per cent of the country's population, exceeding the goal set in the Government’s Resolution No 01/NQ-CP and almost reaching the universal coverage target.

Maintaining the insurance growth pace, especially the sustainable expansion of health insurance participants amid difficulties has once again affirmed the steadfastness and determination of Vietnam's social insurance sector in the roadmap to realise the universal social and health insurance.

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3.Rising number of policy beneficiaries with ensured benefits and better service quality

The sector made impressions in digital transformation, improved service quality and paid insurance on time with the right amount to ensure rights of beneficiaries.

The VSS prioritised resources to fully and promptly paying pensions, social insurance benefits and monthly benefits based on the new benefit rate from August 14, 2023.

All payments were completed on the morning of the first payment day. 100 per cent of beneficiaries (about more than 1.24 million people) were paid via personal accounts with the total amount of over VND8.8 trillion.

The VSS paid monthly pensions and social insurance benefits to nearly 95,700 people, along with sickness, maternity, convalescence, and health recovery benefits to more than 8.8 million people. More than 1 million people enjoyed unemployment benefits.

Total premium from social insurance, unemployment insurance, and health insurance reached over VND472.3 trillion.

The sector slashed and simplified administrative procedures from 114 procedures in 2015 to only 25 procedures in 2023. 100 per cent of procedures are provided online at level 4.

About 64 per cent of beneficiaries received social insurance and unemployment benefits through personal accounts in urban areas, an increase of 3 per cent compared to 2022.

​4. Strengthened financial discipline, social and health insurance funds continue to be managed in a strict, safe and effect manner

The social and health insurance funds have become the biggest social welfare funds and used on the right purpose with transparency under the management of the National Assembly, the Government and social insurance management council.

5.Creative and flexible communication, consultation and policy response

Communication work has been implemented in various forms including online, offline, helping people learn policies, benefits and join.

In 2023, the VSS collaborated with central and local media agencies to publish more than 32,000 news pieces and documentaries.

The VSS also held about 28,000 communication, training and consultation workshops attracting about 1.58 million attendees.

The VSS information portal saw 200,000-300,00 visits every day. To date, the portal has had 200 million visits and become one of the ministry and sector’s portals with the largest number of viewers.

Also in 2023, the sector offered the supporting and consultation services for over 1.7 million people and hosted 12 policy dialogues at 12 provinces and cities, attracting nearly 2,450 people.

As many as 24,300 social insurance books and 250,000 health insurance cards were presented to people living in disadvantaged circumstances.

6.Taking lead in developing national population database

The VSS received the Government’s certificate of merit for making great achievements in the 2023 National Digital Database Year.

In 2023, the data of over 95 million citizens (including 6 million social and health insurance card holders) in the National Database on Insurance was cross-checked and verified with that on the National Database on Population.

The VSS coordinated with the police, healthcare sector and other relevant sectors to complete the electronic interconnected administrative procedures for the two groups of administrative procedures "Birth Registration - Permanent Residency Registration - Health Insurance Card issuance for children under 6 years old" and "Registration of Death - Removal of Permanent Residency Registration - Funeral Allowance".

About 12,800 medical units, accounting for 100 per cent of the total across the country, have accepted the chip-based ID cards integrated with health insurance cards for their services.

7. Sharp decline in late payment of social, health and unemployment insurance premiums

Thanks to drastic measures taken by the VSS such as launching mass inspections, especially unscheduled inspections, the sector minimised the late payment of social, health and unemployment insurance premiums.

In 2023, the sector made inspections at more than 22,000 units and retrieved more than VND2 trillion of late payment premiums.

The amount of late payment accounted for only 2.69 per cent of collection - the lowest rate since 2016.

8. Putting the interests of health insurance participants at core, the VSS coordinated with the health sector to remove obstacles in health insurance-covered examination and treatment.

The VSS also added groups whose health insurance is paid for by the State budget.

9. VssID app has 35 million users

The insurance app VssID continued to be updated with more convenience with some features integrated with VneID e-identification app.

VssID has been considered to be a breakthrough in the sector’s three-year digital transformation. It is one of three apps managed by State agencies having the most users in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

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10.External relations between VSS and other partners strengthened.

The VSS has strengthened bilateral and multilateral partnerships including social welfare cooperation with countries like Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK0 and international organisations like World Bank, International Monetary Fund.

In 2023, the VSS’s working group led by the General Director visited and worked with social security agencies in Japan and the RoK to share experiences and support partners in the digital transformation and implement bilateral agreements on social insurance.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan, the VSS hosted a dialogue with 100 Japanese FDI enterprises on the social and health insurance policy implementation.