Participants included leaders of some VSS units, the city’s Social Security and social insurance agencies of districts.

A view of the working session

Delivering a report at the meeting, Deputy Director of HCM Social Security Nguyen Quoc Thanh said in 2022, the HCM City Social Seucrity fulfilled targets last year and exceeded some goals related to insurance premium collection, reducing debts and increasing social insurance and health insurance participants. Administrative reform and application of information and technology in managing and handling professional works have created breakthroughs in implementing related policies.

By the end of 2022, there were nearly 2.6 million compulsory social insurance participants, over 2.55 million unemployment insurance participants, 61,640 voluntary social insurance participants and over 8.5 million health insurance participants, reaching 91.18 per cent of the city’s total population.

Total collection of social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance premiums reached over VND77.6 trillion, equivalent to 103.03 per cent of the yearly target.

In January 2022, the city’s Social Security continued to take comprehensive measures to develop social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance participants, speed up the collection of insurance premiums, reduce debts and ensure full benefits for social insurance, unemployment insurance and health insurance participants.

It also enhanced inspection to discover and punish violators of related regulations.

Apart from these achievements, participants at the meeting also discussed difficulties and challenges facing the social insurance sector, particularly in the shortage of human resources and incomplete management software.

Duong Van Hao, Director of the VSS Department of Contribution Collection – Insurance Book and Card, asked the city’s Social Security to enhance consultancy with local authorities, particularly the Steering Committee on implementing social insurance and health insurance policies in the city to have appropriate and timely direction for every district, commune and ward to mobilise the involvement of the whole political system in carrying out tasks, particularly in the context of the shortage of human resources.   

Illustrative image (internet)

The city’s Social Security also needed to propose to get additional support from the local budget for disadvantaged citizens to help them join social insurance and health insurance, he said.

It was also necessary to build a database on groups of compulsory social insurance participants and health insurance participants as well as potential voluntary social insurance participants, he added.

He instructed the city’s Social Security to speed up communications to raise public awareness of participating in social insurance and health insurance via the public portal.

At the meeting, the city’s Social Security also mentioned difficulties in settlement and estimation of medical examination and treatment costs covered by health insurance; and settling benefits for workers of businesses that committed social insurance debts and foreign employees.

Leaders of relevant VSS units discussed and put forward measures to help the city’s Social Security deal with these issues.

 VSS Director General Nguyen The Manh speaking at the working session

Speaking at the working session, VSS Director General Nguyen The Manh spoke highly of achievements made by the city’s Social Security in 2022 in spite of difficulties and challenges.

In order to effectively implement social insurance and health insurance policies in the city in 2023, he asked the HCM City Social Security to review and assess shortcomings and find appropriate solutions, closely follow direction from the VSS, proactively consult local authorities about assigning the coverage rage of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance for every district, commune and ward.

Communication was very important, he said. The city’s Social Security needs to be more flexible and creative in promoting communications.

He also requested the city’s Social Security to pay attention to ensuring benefits of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance participants to help spread the meaning and benefits of related policies and encourage the participation of more people.

He noted that measures should also be taken to prevent corruption and abuse of social insurance policies.

The city’s Social Security was ordered to review, assess and expand the network of collection of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance contribution; guiding participants to install and use the VssID application of the VSS; speed up administrative reform and application of information and technology; applying public online services to improve service quality and reducing overloading for staff, Manh said.

He instructed the city’s Social Security to continue to provide training to help raise professional skills for its staff.

He asked relevant units of the VSS to guide and support the city’s Social Security in carrying out tasks, recruiting more employees to help the city deal with human resources shortage, upgrading related software, and promoting the application of information and technology to help the city’s staff to work effectively./.