The agency’s Department of Contribution Collection, Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card said the whole country currently has 19.71 million pupils and students.

The number of students participating in health insurance has reached 18.79 million, including over 17 million pupils in primary, secondary and high school and 1.76 million students from 923 universities, colleges, and vocational schools.

Notably, 100 per cent of pupils and students in five provinces of Bac Giang, Ha Nam, Hung Yen, Hai Duong and Lang Son have participated in the health insurance.

It is reported that in other localities, the expansion of student health insurance coverage has been carried out drastically. Data from the Department of Contribution Collection, Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card indicates that during the first week of December alone, social insurance agencies in provinces and cities reported an increase of 83,043 pupils and students joining the health insurance system, in which 70,277 pupils and 13,126 students.

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Of note, the increase mostly took place in big cities. For example, in Ha Noi, there are about 98 per cent of pupils and students, equal to more than 2 million, participating in health insurance, while the number is 95.4 per cent, equal to 1.93 million pupils and students, in HCM City.

In Dong Nai Province, the number is 99.2 per cent, equal to 617,867 pupils and students. The number is 93 per cent, equal to 626,571 pupils and students, in Nghe An Province.

In the meantime, the work of encouraging students to participate in health insurance has been accelerated in other provinces in the country.

Statistics from the management board showed that an additional 83,043 students have joined health insurance over the past week.

More work to do

Although it has achieved a relatively positive coverage rate of health insurance, said the Department of Contribution Collection, Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card, there are about 914,950 students who have yet to participate in health insurance.

Therefore, Viet Nam Social Security’s branches are told to urgently take a range of measures to further increase the coverage rate of health insurance for the group of students, striving for 100 per cent coverage.

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of health insurance participants has declined over the past six months.

Besides, after Decision 861-QD/TTg of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was implemented, a large number of people were no longer eligible for financial assistance to participate in health insurance.

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To offset such decrease, social insurance agencies in provinces and cities are implementing a series of solutions, focusing on the potential groups of pupils and students. Realities show that, any localities that report high percentage of pupils and students joining the health insurance system, the universal health insurance coverage in those localities is quite positive. Bac Giang Province is an example. The province is one of the first localities hard hit by the fourth wave of COVID-19, but the number of health insurance in the locality reaches 1.69 million, in which 346,883 participants are pupils and students, making up about 20.4 per cent of the total. With the participation of 100 per cent of pupils and students in the health insurance system, Bac Giang has regained its driving force for growth and almost fulfilled its target of health insurance expansion in 2021, equal to 99,1 per cent currently.

Duong Van Hao, head of the Department of Contribution Collection, Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card, said branches are ordered to focus on increasing the number of health insurance participants during the remaining weeks of this year.

The branches have to focus on groups that have high potential to participate in health insurance, thereby achieving the growth target for the year, he said.

Hao added that the group of students should be prioritised at that time.

If we effectively implement tasks and achieve a coverage rate of 100 per cent with the group, the number of people participating in the health insurance nationwide will increase by nearly 1 million, he said.

Recently, Deputy General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Tran Dinh Lieu, at an online meeting, also ordered all branches in provinces and cities to step up the implementation of solutions to increase health insurance participants.

Students are one of the prioritised groups, he said.

The branches are required to send their staff to work directly with schools to further increase the participation rate of students in health insurance, he said./.