At the workshop, Alain Cany, President of EuroCham, said that Vietnam had recorded many achievements and was a good example in taking care of people's health. In particular, when overcoming challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam demonstrated experience in disease prevention and control.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Along with the Government and people of Vietnam, EuroCham has held cooperative activities to share and support Vietnam in taking care of people's health, he said.

He added that it was very meaningful to organise such a workshop to share international experience on the development of the Law on Health Insurance at a time when Vietnam's Law on Health Insurance was being revised and improved.

The revised law was expected to improve the implementation of the healthcare goals - increasing health insurance coverage for all the country’s population.

"Designing the right solution, with international experience from experts, enterprises and large pharmaceutical corporations will bring great results," said Alain Cany.

Amitabh Dube, Co-Chairman of Pharma Group, also said this unit's participation in sharing experience in developing the Health Insurance Law was a commitment to ensuring people's health and helping patients in Vietnam access high-quality and safe medicine.

Speaking at the seminar, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Pham Luong Son said that the health insurance policy had been implemented in Vietnam since 1992.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Up to now, the health insurance coverage in Vietnam has increased from 57 per cent of the population in 2009 to 91 per cent by 2021 and is gradually moving towards the goal of universal health insurance.

In the 2008-2018 period, there were an average of 132 million medical care visits per year with health insurance with an average total cost of VND47.5 trillion per year.

Since 2019, on average, each year there are over 170 million medical care visits with health insurance, with an average total cost of about VND100 trillion per year. Health insurance funds play an increasingly important role in health spending.

In addition to the achievements, the implementation of the Law on Health Insurance in Vietnam also faces many difficulties and challenges. For example, the health insurance premium has not changed since 2009, but the benefits of the participants are adjusted and expanded, plus the cost of health insurance is constantly increasing.

The health insurance fund sometimes spends more than its revenue, especially in 2016. One of the big concerns in the health insurance policy is the benefits package.

Sơn said that despite the scope of health insurance benefits being considered quite comprehensive, the development of the benefits package paid by the health insurance fund was mainly based on the proposal of the health facilities, rather than on evidence of cost-effective assessment for those services.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Besides, Vietnam was currently facing an aging population, changing disease patterns, and growing medicine use, he said, adding that in the context of economic integration, globalisation and the increasingly powerful fourth industrial revolution, the implementation of the Law on Health Insurance revealed many shortcomings.

“Therefore, the health insurance policy must be adjusted to solve difficulties, following the current context,” Son said.

One of the issues many workshop participants were interested in was the implementation of the supplemental health insurance package, which is expected to be included in the Law on Health Insurance (amended). In addition, ways to mobilise resources to achieve the goal of universal health care were also discussed at the workshop.

Jonathan Roberts, General Director in charge of Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam markets of IQVIA, shared experience in financial resources for non-communicable diseases with high treatment costs.

According to him, countries around the world need a new model of financing, because, in terms of mortality, non-communicable diseases take the lives of about 41 million people every year or 71 per cent of the total number of deaths globally. The patients must pay medical costs by themselves, the combination of public health programs and insurance reimbursement that do not cover new therapies and disease, leading to suboptimal outcomes.

"Currently, despite efforts having been made, about 100 million people continue to be pushed into extreme poverty due to health costs. Additionally, due to the insufficient investment and ineffective reinvestment, the effects of non-communicable diseases are estimated to contribute to a loss of $47 trillion in GDP between 2011 and 2025," said Jonathan Roberts.

Jonathan Roberts also gave five typical examples of the new financial model: Mixed finance (investing in patients and accepting risks from budgetary or non-profit sources to attract more private investment); new private insurance (insurance for excluded products and services such as diagnostics, pre-existing diseases, micro insurance, new integrated technology); financing from the state budget (designed to meet patient needs, multi-party, multi-department contributions, tax-based innovation fund); multi-source financing (encouraging collaboration between different stakeholders, mutual aid and charity-funded healthcare, sales-based donations, and multiplier funding); and financial services (alternative methods for patients to pay such as loan plans and savings plans).

Deputy General Director Pham Luong Son said that contributions to the health insurance lawmaking strengthened the will and determination of Vietnam Social Security in improving the health insurance legal framework.

“The first thing to do is a change in the financial management model of health insurance, the second is the need for an additional health insurance package to meet the healthcare needs and increasing health insurance coverage,” he said.

Son added that the aim was to reduce the proportion of people's out-of-pocket contributions as much as possible; while minimising the overlap between the basic package of health services and the supplementary health insurance package.

“It is expected that the Law on Health Insurance (amended) will include a package of prevention, screening and early diagnosis, which focuses on three groups of diseases: cancer group, tuberculosis group, and chronic non-communicable disease group, with the goal of early disease detection, early screening and early treatment,” he said.