(Source: Viet Nam Social Security)

Each student who joins the medical insurance programme would be provided with a social security code which could be used for all their lives, according to a new regulation for health insurance, social insurance and unemployment insurance.

The social security code would be used for recording insurance history and processing insurance payment claims, said Tran Dinh Lieu, Deputy Director General of Viet Nam Social Security (VSS). Under the new regulation, health insurance is a compulsory program for students. The monthly fee for health insurance for students is 4.5 percent of the State basic salary level, equal to 58,500 VND (2.5 USD), increasing from 3 percent last year.

However, each student would pay 70 percent of the fee; the rest would be paid by the State. The fee could be paid in three-, six-, nine- or twelve-month terms. The health insurance cardholders, excluding poor students, receive benefits of up to 80 percent of their medical treatment fees. In this school year, many localities have introduced policies to encourage students to join the health insurance programme.

Students of poor families may be offered assistance up to 70 percent of the insurance fees. The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong paid 70 percent of insurance fees for ethnic minority students.

According to the statistics of VSS, in this school year, the percentage of students joining health insurance has reached 92.5 percent, equivalent to 15.9 million students nationwide, as compared to 90.5 percent and 15.6 million students last school year. However, to reach the goal of 100 percent of students joining the health insurance, schools nationwide were asked to disseminate information about the benefits of health insurance among students and parents, said Lieu.

In fact, many people, including students and parents, were not aware of the benefits of the health insurance. In many education entities, the fee of health insurance was not separated from other fees, creating misunderstanding among students and parents.

International Cooperation Department