Accordingly, PAPI 2020 provided information for the National Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and policymakers under the context that Viet Nam is making all-out efforts to deal with the double crisis of the global medical and economic pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 14,700 citizens– randomly selected – were interviewed for the PAPI 2020 Report. This records the largest number of participants since the survey was first conducted in 2011.

Of note, the Report points out that, as the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a “crisis” throughout 2020, the public concerns about health and health insurance soared from 2 percent in 2019 to 16 percent in 2020.

According to Dr Paul Schuler, a member of the research team, the concerns about health might have been related to COVID-19. In fact, the findings can be viewed based on two perspectives, that is, health risks as the complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic pose a real threat that infections are possible at any time; and increased financial losses in case they have to pay for medical care in the current circumstances.

Health insurance acts as a financial institution that protects participants from paying high medical cost if they contract any illness. As shown in PAPI 2020, concerns about not being protected by the health insurance fund increased, so did concerns about the reduced household economic situation. The findings reveal that there was an increase from 14 percent in 2019 to 18 percent of respondents who said their household economic situation worsened in 2020 compared to the last three years.

Besides, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused serious job losses. As many as 25.34 per cent of respondents said that they or their family members lost jobs because of the impact of COVID-19. In case labourers do not immediately partake in the medical household insurance scheme, it means not a small number of these labourers will temporarily stay outside the safety net of the health insurance fund. Reports by Viet Nam Social Security and Social Security agencies in localities also reflect a decreased participation in health insurance system by those working for businesses because of their unemployment, business bankruptcy and closure.

It can be said that the COVID-19 caused the local people to fully understand risks to their health; concurrently “gaps” in the health insurance system enable them to be well aware of benefits, and social significance brought about by this social security policy. In the meanwhile, the socio-economic development plan for 2021 approved by the National Assembly set a target of social insurance coverage of 91 per cent of the whole population. This is a challenging goal, but demonstrates the importance of health
insurance policy when the local and international economies are going through those difficult periods of time.