Director of Ca Mau province's Social Security Trinh Trung Kien said that by the end of June 2022, the number of people participating in social insurance in the province totalled 82,265, reaching 12.39 per cent of its labour force. Of those, 60,441 people joined mandatory social insurance, an increase of 2,315, reaching about 95 per cent of total participants; 21,824 people joined voluntary social insurance, a decrease of 5,124 compared to the end of 2021, reaching 3.14 per cent of the labour force.

The number of people participating in unemployment insurance increased by 1,443 (equal to 2.81 per cent) over the same period, an increase of 2,312 people (4.6 per cent) compared to the end of 2021.

About 87.13 per cent of the province's labour force participated in unemployment insurance.

The provincial social security agency issued 942,712 health insurance cards, the Ministry of Defense issued 8,711 cards for relatives of military personnel and armed forces including the Police, Army and Border Guard agencies, which issued about 6,000 cards. If counting 105,096 local people working in other provinces with valid health insurance cards based on household data, the province's health insurance coverage rate reached 88.98 per cent.

“Therefore, it is still necessary to get more 134,989 people to participate in health insurance to achieve the target assigned by the Prime Minister," Kien said.

 Supervisors from Social Security Management Council have a working session at Ca Mau Provincial Social Security

Explaining the decrease in the number of people participating in social insurance in the province, Kien said that according to Decision No. 861/QD-TTg dated June 4, 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the list of communes in Region III, Region II and Region I in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the 2021-2025 period and Decision No. 353/QD-TTg dated March 15, 2022 approving the list of disadvantaged districts/communes in the 2021-2025 period, Ca Mau Province has 35 communes and 183 hamlets affected, thus 144,738 people no longer have the funds to pay health insurance premiums. The provincial social security agency has mobilized the families of 64,299 people to participate in household health insurance, the remaining 80,464 people have not yet participated in health insurance.

In Ca Mau province, ten enterprises delayed paying social insurance debts for years and now they are unable to pay the debts of VND92 billion including interest, accounting for 4.22 per cent of the debt ratio. By the end of June 2022, the total social insurance debt was VND169.3 billion, accounting for 7.84 per cent of the total receivables.

The settlement and payment of social insurance and unemployment insurance policies for employees are timely and fully ensured by the provincial social insurance agency with transparent procedures.

In the first six months of 2022, VND660.147 trillion was paid for 24,789 eligible beneficiaries, an increase of 37.42 per cent over the same period including nearly 3,000 people receiving sickness benefits due to COVID-19 and those receiving unemployment benefits.

Overview of the working session of the supervisory team.

 A total of 1,720 enterprises had the contribution rate to the Insurance Fund for occupational accidents and diseases reduced by 0.5 per cent. Five units and 16 employees are temporarily allowed to halt contributions to the retirement and survivorship fund with a reduction of VND19.854 million.

The social security agencies confirmed the list of employees with temporary suspension of labour contracts, unpaid leave and job cessation for 162 units with 3,212 employees.

The unemployment insurance contribution rate was reduced from 1 per cent to 0 per cent for 1,212 units with an amount of VND20,177.421,846.

40,774 employees received unemployment insurance with an amount of VND101.379 billion.

In addition, by the end of June 2022, the provincial social insurance agency has conducted specialised inspections at 45 units.

Members of the supervisory team from the Social Security Management Council discuss with representatives of local departments and agencies.

Specialised inspection is one of the activities that Ca Mau Social Security implemented seriously and effectively. In addition to the planned inspection, the Ca Mau Social Security also conducted irregular inspections. From the beginning of the year to June 2022, unscheduled inspections have been carried out at 12 units. Through the inspection and examination of enterprises, many violations have been discovered on the payment of social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance, such as appropriating employees' premiums, deducting payment for social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance from employees.

Representatives of local departments and branches at the meeting.

“Ca Mau Social Security is one of the units with strong internal resources, overcoming difficulties when the locality is recovering from difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic," said Vice Chairman of the province People's Committee Nguyen Minh Luan.

Luan emphasised that the province would continue to strengthen the leadership and direction to achieve the planned targets, contributing to increasing the social insurance/health insurance coverage.

Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Tran Dinh Lieu spoke at the meeting.

At the meeting, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Tran Dinh Lieu proposed that the People's Committee and People's Council of the province continue to pay close attention to and closely direct the implementation of policies on social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance.

He also called for further communication and dissemination of social insurance, health insurance, and voluntary insurance policies.

He requested that Ca Mau Provincial Social Security strictly implement necessary measures, and strengthen inspection over the implementation of social insurance and health insurance policies.

Especially in the field of health insurance, the Deputy General Director said that it was necessary to have specific plans and forecasts to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment; strictly comply with state regulations, and avoid unreasonable expenses.

 Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Head of Supervisory Delegation Nguyen Duy Thang concluded the meeting.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nguyen Duy Thang highly appreciated and praised the achievements of the social insurance agency of Ca Mau province. However, he asked the industry to analyse and clarify the reasons why the development of participants in social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance in the province has not been effective.

He also requested the Ca Mau Social Security to perform the management and use of the health insurance fund; use of solutions to accelerate health insurance coverage as well as improve the quality of medical examination and treatment.

The social security agency needed to strengthen state management, and promote coordination among sectors in the management of the health insurance fund, he said./.