VSS' General Director Nguyen The Manh delivered the opening speech

Changing mindset and actions

In the opening speech of the conference, VSS' General Director Nguyen The Manh said that from the beginning of 2022 until now, the Government and the Prime Minister have issued a number of new regulations related to the collection and development of participants of social and health insurance, such as: Decision No. 546/QD-TTg on assignment of targets for implementation of health insurance coverage in the period of 2022 - 2025, Resolution No. 69/NQ-CP on assignment of targets for social insurance participants development, Decree No. 38/2022/ND-CP stipulating the minimum wage, etc. Accordingly, the VSS has issued documents to replace, amend and supplement regulations on collection and management of late payment; developed a roadmap to develop participants of social, health and unemployment insurance to guide social security agencies of provinces and cities in implementing collection, debt reduction, and development of participants. The social security agencies of provinces and cities has seriously implemented and achieved significant results.

As a result, as of June 30, 2022, 16,821 million people participate in social insurance, of which, the number of compulsory social insurance participants was 15.498 million, reaching 91.7% of the plan; the number of voluntary social insurance participants was 1.323 million, reaching 58.1% of the plan, reaching about 34% of the labor force in age; 86,537 million people participate in health insurance, reaching 94.3% of the plan, reaching the rate of 87.4% of the population participating in health insurance.

However, besides the results achieved, there are still certain limitations. In the first 6 months of the year, the number of people participating in compulsory social insurance in 15 provinces and cities saw a reduction compared to December 2021; the organization of irregular inspection of debtors for 3 months or more achieved low results; a high number of collection agents are still late in submitting dossiers and payment to the social security agency, leading to a delay of participants getting health insurance cards.

With the goal of striving to develop 1.4 million compulsory social insurance participants, 954 thousand voluntary social insurance participants; 5.2 million health insurance participants, the debt ratio decreased to 2.78%, recently, the VSS' General Director proposed, within the framework of the Conference, the Directors and Deputy Directors of the provincial and municipal social security agencies must be unified in awareness, thought and action; must renew the mindset for the common task to master, direct cadres and employees to focus on coordinating with related units to deploy, following the guidance of the VSS. It is also necessary to timely report to local committees and authorities to take advantage of the leadership and direction in organizing the implementation; closely coordinate with related units and authorized organizations to collect and assign specific responsibilities to each leader, cadre, and public employee to perform their tasks, ensuring that all targets assigned by the VSS will be completed by December 31, 2022; timely raise questions and problems to the VSS for settlement.

Director of the Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card - Duong Van Hao guides some new contents on collection and development of participants of social and health insurance in 2022

The professional boards and units under the VSS regularly monitor, urge and promptly propose and remove obstacles for the social security agencies of provinces and cities to effectively deploy and implement the guiding contents.

The collection authorized organizations regularly monitor, urge and direct affiliated units to closely coordinate with the social security agency for implementation; consolidate and perfect the network and facilities to perform the assigned tasks with high quality.

Promoting communication - "key" to develop participants of social and health insurance

Also at the conference, the representative of the Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card introduced to the local social security authorities the content of the Regulation on management of activities of the collection service organization of social insurance and health insurance, issued together with Decision No. 1155 /QD-BHXH. In which, there are many newly updated issues such as: the concept of a collection agency for social and health insurance will be replaced by a collection service organization; using the phrase "collector of social and health insurance premiums" instead of "employee of social and health insurance premiums" like before. Regarding the contract, there is also a change when the phrase "authorization contract for collection of social and health insurance premiums" replaced "contract of agency for collection of social and health insurance premiums". In addition, the contract requirements are also adjusted such as: term; contract guarantee; decentralization of signing, contract extension, etc.

VSS' Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu chaired the discussion at the Conference

Regarding the draft guidance on the process of exploiting and developing participants of compulsory social insurance and health insurance, the Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card said that this draft has 3 new contents to note, which are, firstly, to list and update all units and individuals that employ workers in the locality to form data on units and employees who have not yet participated as a basis for exploiting and developing participants of compulsory social and health insurance. Secondly, it is about the regular implementation time and by size and scope to specify the completion time in each year. Thirdly, it is chaired by the provincial-level or district-level social security agency, inviting more mass organizations, political organizations, and especially with the participation of the commune police, the police in charge of the area, to participate in a number of stages during the process.

In addition, there are new procedures for reviewing, updating information, and completing data of units and employees who have not participated in compulsory social insurance and health insurance; the process of organizing the exploitation and development of participants of compulsory social and health insurance. In which, there are key contents such as conference organization; working directly with the unit; carrying out inspection and examination; transferring files to the investigating agency to propose criminal handling, etc.

Also at the conference, the Information and Communication Center (VSS) presented the talk "Innovating the content and form of communication, and developing participants of social and health insurance". Accordingly, communication is identified as the "key" to effectively implement the development of participants of social and health insurance. Therefore, in the coming time, communication needs to continue to be paid attention to, so that "people understand, people know, people believe, people listen, people follow, and people do" in the implementation of social and health insurance policies. It is crucial to associate communication with the development of participants in social, unemployment and health insurance, especially voluntary social insurance, household-based health insurance and communication, mobilizing employees who have quit their jobs due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic to continue participating in social, unemployment and health insurance when returning to the labor market.

Moreover, another task is to further strengthen the leadership and direction of the Party committees and authorities at all levels in the communication of social and health insurance policies; actively and proactively coordinate with relevant departments, branches and units to advise the Party committees and authorities to have a mechanism to support funding for participants of voluntary social insurance and health insurance; actively mobilize social resources to support people to pay voluntary social insurance and household-based health insurance premiums; closely coordinate with focal units of ministries, branches, socio-political organizations and media and press agencies to implement communication of social and health insurance policies.

Overview image of the conference

During the discussion session at the Conference, comments reflecting the difficulties in the implementation of tasks at the facility were received, answered and guided satisfactorily by Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu, professional departments, and units under the VSS, in order to ensure consistency in the process of performing professional work in accordance with the regulations of the industry.

Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu affirmed that the collection and development of participants of social and health insurance is one of the most important tasks of Vietnam's social security industry. Lieu suggested that local social security agencies must recognize and properly assess the development of social and health insurance participants in their localities compared to the national average in order to have solutions and orientations and successfully complete the targets and tasks in 2022./.