Deputy General Director Pham Luong Son said over recent years, the implementation of health insurance policies in Viet Nam has gained encouraging results. As of June 2019, the Viet Nam Social Security has completed the targets assigned by the Government. At present, the rate of health insurance coverage has reached nearly 90 per cent of the total population. Viet Nam Social Security believes the rate could increase to 90.7 per cent by 2020. However, in order to continue expanding health insurance coverage and ensuring the benefits of health insurance participants, challenges remain. Therefore, he said he hoped the WHO would continue coordinating and supporting the health sector and Viet Nam Social Security to fulfil the targets in the context of deeper international integration.

Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, appreciated results gained in the fields of healthcare and health insurance, and said the WHO was willing to share experience and cooperate with Viet Nam in these fields to gain better results.

At the working session, participants discussed achievements and challenges in implementing health insurance policies in Viet Nam. They highlighted encouraging achievements, including increasing the number of health insurance participants, better benefits covered by health insurance, simplified administrative procedures, connected data and a wide network of clinics covering insured patients.

However, challenges remain, including the increasing rate of aging population, low rate of health insurance premiums, high rate of out-of-pocket expenses for medical services and abuse of the health insurance fund. 

Le Van Phuc, head of the Viet Nam Social Security’s Department of Pharmaceutical and Medical Materials, said over the past five years, the WHO has regularly provided policy and technical support for the Viet Nam Social Security, becoming a trustworthy partner.

He said the Viet Nam Social Security wished to receive cooperation and support in many fields, including improving human resources management and use; renewing payment methods; improving fund balance forecast capacity; enhancing the efficiency of the assessment system; and improving health insurance staff’s capacity.  

The two sides agreed to put forward deeper cooperation programs in the future in the fields of healthcare and health insurance./.