The legal and guidance documents not only have been timely and fully issued but also regularly amended to fit with reality, ensure the rights of health-insurance participants and effectively manage the health insurance fund.

The statement was made by head of the National Assembly (NA)’s Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh during the afternoon working session on October 22, when NA deputies listened to the Government’s report on the management and use of the health insurance fund.

Anh said the committee asked the Government to summarise the implementation of Resolution No 68 as a basis to make recommendations to the NA to issue a resolution in accordance with the new situation.

The Government also should quickly submit to the NA the drafts of the amended Law on Health Insurance and amended Law on Medical Examination and Treatment for approval, she said.

The Government was told to direct the completion of sub-legal documents to ensure consistency in the legal system, she added.

The committee also pointed out a number of issues for the NA deputies to discuss at the session, she said.

The issues included how to increase the number of health-insurance participants, solutions on increasing health-insurance coverage for households; central and local responsibilities in ensuring grassroots health capacity; solutions to raise investment in upgrading commune-level health stations; difficulties for public health facilities when implementing the financial autonomy mechanism; disadvantages in examination and treatment for health-insurance participants, especially COVID-19 patients, she said.

Previously, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long presented the Government’s report at the session.

Long said the number of people participating in health insurance reached 87.96 million, accounting for 90.85 per cent of the population as of December 31, 2020.

There were 2,612 health facilities registered to examine and treat health-insurance participants in the country in 2020, an increase of 166 health facilities compared to 2019. Of which, the number of public health facilities increased by 66 compared to 2019 and the number of private health facilities increased by 100 compared to 2019, Long said.

Besides, it was estimated 167 million health-insurance participants received examination and treatment in 2020, he said.

Long also said the quality of the grassroots health system had improved, playing a key role in monitoring, testing, quarantining, vaccinating, treating and managing COVID-19 patients. It helped to reduce severe cases, contributing to reducing mortality during the pandemic.

The ratio of commune-level health facilities that were eligible for examination and treatment of health-insurance participants reached 92.8 per cent, he said.

The health ministry also issued regulations to unify the prices of examination and treatment services for health-insurance participants among same-class hospitals in the country, he said.

The ministry already amended the regulations four times to improve the benefits of health-insurance participants, he said.

The total collection of the health insurance fund was VND110 trillion ($4.8 billion) in 2020, including VND104 trillion ($4.58 billion) of health insurance expenditure, he added.

The accumulated balance of the health insurance fund by the end of 2020 was VND32.9 trillion ($1.45 billion).

The balance of the fund was ensured because the Government, the health ministry and relevant ministries synchronously implemented many solutions to control spending from the fund, he said.

In terms of implementing the Resolution No 68, Long said the ministry basically finished the assigned tasks with outstanding results. The number of people participating in health insurance was 10.85 per cent higher than the targeted goal. The grassroots health system was gradually improved and expanded. Overcrowding in hospitals was reduced, contributing to improving the quality of medical examination and treatment services and meeting patient requirements. The family doctor system was developed. More inspections were conducted to promptly prevent and strictly handle violations of the law.

Long said, in the future, the Government, ministries and localities would focus on implementing solutions such as building and completing the system of legal documents on health insurance; the law on training and granting certificates of family medicine and conditions to ensure its implementation.

The ministry would innovate the content of dissemination of health insurance in order to attract more people and businesses, he said.

It would strengthen handling violations of the law on health insurance, he said.

Long said the Government submitted to the National Assembly to consider amending the resolution in line with the Party’s resolutions on strengthening the care of people’s health in the new situation; allocating more resources to develop the grassroots health system; and boosting the supervision of the implementation of the Law on Health Insurance./.