A bright spot of security in the panorama of difficulties

In May 2021, although the 4th wave of the COVID-19 epidemic is under particularly complicated developments, the number of participants in social, health and unemployment insurance all has had positive changes, as well as an increase compared to the same period in 2020. It is thanks to the efforts and high determination of the entire Vietnamese social insurance industry.

As of May 31, 2021, despite the growing number of participants in social and unemployment insurance could not compensate for the decreased in the first months of the year due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, but it both increased compared to the same period in 2020. Specifically, the total number of participants in social insurance nationwide is over 16.17 million (reaching 32.49% of the labor force), reaching 91.3% of the plan set by VSS, an increase over 1.1 million people compared to the same period in 2020. The number of participants in compulsory social insurance is over 15 million, a decrease of 25,811 compared to the end of 2020, participants in voluntary social 

insurance is over 1.12 million people, a decrease of 13,060; The number of participants in unemployment insurance is over 13.3 million people (reaching 26.73% of the labor force), reaching 93.51% of the plan, down 20,737.

Particularly, the number of health insurance participants increased compared to the same period and by the end of 2020, with over 87.77 million people (an increase of 246,185) reaching the coverage rate of 89.9% of the population and 97.6% of the plan.

Illustrative image (source: internet)

According to the Director of the Department of Contribution Collection – Insurance Book and Card Duong Van Hao, the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, especially the 4th outbreak with extremely complicated and unpredictable developments, has spread rapidly in large industrial parks in a number of provinces and cities, greatly affecting the operation of enterprises; partly due to problems with mechanisms and policies (handling of units and enterprises that go bankrupt, dissolve, owners escaping, operation ceased, etc. got no guidance from competent authorities). In addition, many target groups also have fluctuations in the participation rate of health insurance when a number of support policies from the state budget for policy beneficiaries (ethnic minorities, people living in lowland areas, etc.) have been reviewed, leading to a delay for new policies to be issued. Therefore, the above growth figures have shown great efforts of the entire Vietnamese social security industry. "However, it is also necessary to clearly see the subjective reasons when the growth is uneven among localities," emphasized Hao. The rate of participation in voluntary social insurance and health insurance has increased in the localities, but some places have not making any progress, which shows that they have not been drastic and proactive in performing tasks.

Hao reported, in the request to review the database of people who have not participated in social and health insurance from the data provided by the tax agency, only 16 localities have done it. Even "specialized inspectors on payment of social and health insurance are a good tool of the social security industry to reduce debt and detect violations, however, although the number of debts over 3 months is quite high, there were only 5 provinces in the country that organized specialized inspections.", Hao said.

To achieve the plan set by the VSS in 2021, in the remaining 7 months of the year, the whole nation needs to develop 1,521,328 more participants in social insurance; over 9,244,000 participants in unemployment insurance and over 2.16 million participants in health insurance. Therefore, in the coming time, local social security agencies must strengthen inspection, supervision and urge provincial social security agencies to deploy plans and targets for collection and development of participants, and reducing outstanding debts. In addition, the Department of Contribution Collection – Insurance Book and Card also proposed two new solutions to support participation development. “We have to determine that this task is accompanying side by side with COVID-19, so holding a face-to-face propaganda conference will be difficult. It is possible to change the approach by propagating on the social network environment," said Hao. This activity will require the coordination of the Information and Communication Center, IT Center and Customer Service Center. Similarly, in terms of reviewing the list of employees who have not yet participated in social insurance according to shared data from the tax authorities, during the current epidemic period, employers may be required to report and hold responsibility for the information they provided, as the social insurance agency will post-check when the new normal is re-established.

Delivering a speech at the conference, Director of the Information and Communication Center Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong said: “Our industry has achieved and created a positive effect through the donation of health insurance cards and social insurance books. In addition, the cooperation with the Postal Service to organize the launching ceremonies, approach and distribute leaflets with messages about social and health insurance as well as directly explaining and orienting the people to understanding and knowing about the benefits not only for themselves but also for their loved ones when participating in social and health insurance has achieved remarkable results.”

Illustrative image (source: internet)

In addition to the FAQ section on the VSS Portal, the Information and Communication Center has actively coordinated with the media and press agencies to have columns to answer people's questions, with the aim of not only increasing the coverage of activities of the Vietnam's social security industry, but also approaching and solving people's questions in the most specific and formal way.

Especially in the past time, the Information and Communication Center has carried out propaganda on VssID - the Digital Social Insurance application and organized communication towards people about the benefits of installing the application. Not only propagating to people about the application, but also when people have difficulty installing, we have organized installation instruction sessions to support them. And thanks to that, through monitoring people's feedback on the media, the Center has received positive feedbacks about the Vietnam's social security industry. “The Information and Communication Center is developing a propaganda plan to develop the subjects of social and health insurance, so that the communication is appropriate and targeted, the Center will actively coordinate with relevant professional units to build plans in the most detailed and feasible way.”, emphasized the Director of the Center.

Overcoming difficulties and ensuring the interests of participants

In the implementation of the health insurance policy, in the first 5 months of the year, the whole country had over 65 million medical treatment visits, a decrease of 3.67% compared to the same period in 2020, but the costs increased by 12%, with a total expenditure of 42,028 billion, performing 40.7% of the estimate. Reports of the Department of Health Insurance Implementation, the Center for Medical Claim Review all pointed out one thing in common: Overspending still occurs in many provinces and cities; The abuse and exploitation of health insurance funds both on the sides of patients and medical facilities have not been fully and comprehensively controlled (multiple medical treatment visits to get drugs, over-prescribing drugs, payment statistics for technical services that cost more than the type of service performed, assigning many patients to inpatient treatment, assigning unnecessary technical services, taking advantage of policies and humanitarian programs to collect patients, etc.). This is what the Inspectorate Department expressed concern towards when "the quality of inspection and examination, especially the inspection of medical facilities under health insurance in some provinces and cities is not really effective, and formalistic; In particular, there are places where inspection or examination has not yet been carried out, but there are still cases of abuse and exploitation of health insurance funds", said Director of the Inspectorate Department Tran Duc Long. Emphasizing that "using an electronic health insurance card will help the VssID application spread faster", Duong Tuan Duc - Director of the Center for Medical Claim Review also shared some concerns from medical facilities when transferring to this new form. Many medical facilities are concerned that they do not have health insurance cards to prevent patients from going to other places for medical care before the treatment has finished, or "evading" paying hospital fees; Duc proposed to add a warning function on the Reception Gate software, and add a function to update the patient's medical status, etc. Reporting the results of settlement of social insurance benefits in recent years, Director of the Department of Social Insurance Implementation Do Ngoc Tho said that in the first 5 months of the year, the number of people who applied for lump-sum social insurance allowance still tended to increase. In May 2021, there were 103,918 people enjoying this type of allowance, bringing the total in the first five months of the year to 469,744. The number of new claimants to unemployment insurance increased by 74,634 people in May, accumulated ones in the first 5 months of the year were 295,989. However, these figures also decreased compared to the same period in 2020, with the corresponding reductions of 65,897 (16.32%) and 47,757 (12.36%). In addition, abuse and exploitation of social and unemployment insurance funds still occur in some localities and units such as: forging documents, buying and selling, issuing false documents, making false declarations of records for entitlement to benefits, etc. Part of the reason is due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, as employees lost their jobs and did not have enough income to ensure their lives; Another part is that social insurance in some localities has not taken seriously, has not fully complied with professional processes, reviewing and checking data. In particular, Tho reflected the frustration of many employees want to close the social insurance book to get a lump-sum allowance or a pension, but getting stuck because the business still owes a number of months to participate in social insurance, asking VSS for removal.

Solutions to resolve problems

Directing to solve the problems mentioned in the areas of management, Deputy General Director Pham Luong Son requested that next week there will be a separate meeting with professional units implementing the health insurance policy, medical claim review, IT to discuss specifically, solve outstanding problems in the implementation of health insurance policy, as well as plan to accelerate the upgrade of the "network resource" system of the IT Center to meet the requirements of the new phase. Emphasizing solutions to develop participants in social and health insurance, especially voluntary social insurance, Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu agreed with the proposal to organize online propaganda conferences, asking related units for coordination to implement.

Responding to the concerns of the Department of Health Insurance Implementation about settling benefits for employees at enterprises that owe social insurance contributions, Deputy General Director Le Hung Son said: VSS has guided Hanoi Social Security Office to implement these cases in the following way: To close the settlement book once for the requester; to settle the retirement regime for those who have had enough time to enjoy the real-time pension payment. For the number of months that the enterprise still owes, the enterprise will make additional adjustments to the employees after fulfilling its obligations. This solution will be guided to localities across the country... Deputy General Director Le Hung Son also emphasized that the policy of this year's inspection is to focus on quality, not quantity.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Conference, General Director Nguyen The Manh agreed and requested to include the guiding opinions of the Deputy General Directors in charge of expertise in the conclusion. Manh also acknowledged that the efforts of the entire Vietnam's social security industry in the first 5 months of the year have overcome difficulties and achieved positive results. To complete the tasks in 2021, Manh requested the professional units according to their tasks to quickly overcome the mentioned shortcomings; to synchronously deploy solution groups to develop participants; to urge collection and reduction of debts, not to incur debts to social, unemployment and health insurance premiums in June and the following months.

To coordinate with ministries and branches in implementing programs and plans for inter-sectoral inspection and examination in 2021; to strictly manage beneficiaries and innovate service methods, etc. To require professional units to be responsible for appointing full-time staff to closely follow the process of amending three laws directly related to Vietnam's social insurance industry, which are the Law on Social Insurance, Health Insurance, Inspection. In addition, to promptly implement tasks and solutions to support businesses and people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 epidemic in accordance with the direction of the Government, the Prime Minister and the evolution of the disease. To implement the assignment and division of responsibilities to ensure the transparency principle of people, tasks, processes and responsibilities; transparent results; to further promote the roles and responsibilities of the head; the interests of participants”, emphasized the General Director.