Manh has recently published an article on completing social security policies towards rapid and sustainable development following the 13^th Party Congress.

He made some important points as follows.

Illustrative image (VSS)

Party viewpoints towards social security

The 13th Party Congress resolution and other Party Congress documents have identified social security as an important sector in implementing national socio-economic development.

In the periods of reform and international integration, our Party and State have always paid great attention to building and implementing social security policies, of which the main pillars are social and health insurance policies.

The social and health insurance policies are considered a target and driving force for sustainable development, maintaining socio-political stability and demonstrating the superiority of the socialist-oriented market economic model.

The Party has always affirmed in the Party Congress resolutions that the social security system must be diverse, comprehensive, and shareable among the State, society and people, between population groups within a generation and among generations.

The 13^th party Congress Resolution has aimed at 95 per cent of the population being covered by health insurance by 2025.

The ten-year socio-economic development strategy in the 2021-30 period targets 60 per cent of the labour force joining social insurance, about 60 per cent of retired people benefiting from pensions, monthly retirement and social insurance allowances.

The 13^th Party Congress documents are considered guidance for the building and implementation of social security, health insurance, and unemployment insurance policies.

Insurance policies serve as main pillars of social security

The VSS has followed the Party and Government’s direction on social security and actively taken solutions to expand the insurance membership network and reduce debts as well as step up administrative procedure reform with the aim to ensure public benefits.

Efforts made by the VSS have resulted in important achievements.

In the 2016-19 period, the proportion of social insurance participants increased by 5 to 7 per cent every year.

The number of compulsory social insurance participants was more than 15 million by the end of 2020, accounting for 95.3 per cent of the target.

The number of voluntary social insurance participants surged by five times from 203,871 people in 2016 to more than 1.1 million in 2020.

As of 2020, more than 87.9 million people held health insurance cards, covering 90.0 per cent of the population.

Total insurance payment for retirement, sickness and pregnancy in 2020 was more than VND230.1 trillion including over VND45.5 trillion sourced from State budget and over VND184.6 trillion sourced from the social insurance fund.

Unemployment insurance scheme has proved its efficiency amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 2016 to July 2021, over VND61 trillion of unemployment insurance has been paid.

The VSS has applied information technology in its activities to shorten waiting time and create favourable conditions for insurance participants.

The VSS has also integrated data into the national public service portal and shared data between ministries.

The VSS launched a digital social security app on mobile platforms named VssID.

The number of the social security’s administrative procedures has been cut from 114 in 2015 to 25.

According to the World Bank, administrative waiting time of people and businesses was reduced from 335 hours per year in 2015 to 147 hours per year in 2019.

During the pandemic, the VSS has gave consultation and proposed solutions to support COVID-affected people and businesses following the Government’s Resolution No 68 and Decision No 23 on supportive policies for employees and employers.

The VSS has exempted 100 per cent of accident and occupational disease insurance payments for 375,000 employers.

Supportive policies issued during the pandemic demonstrated the humane values of social, health and unemployment insurance policies.

However, the building and implementation of insurance policies have shown shortcomings such as low social and health insurance coverage, and social insurance debt payment delays. Voluntary social insurance policies are not attractive enough.

The emergence of new labour relations and the international integration process are posing new challenges to the tasks of improving social security quality, expanding coverage and strengthening the sustainability of the social insurance and health insurance system.

Resolution No 28-NQ/TW of the seventh conference of the 12th Central Party Committee on reforming social insurance policies set the goal of developing a flexible, diversified, multi-tiered, modern, and internationally-integrated social insurance system towards 2030. In the long term, the Central Party Committee looks towards universal insurance coverage.

These guidelines and policies need to be implemented in a timely, comprehensive and synchronous manner.

Finalising social security policies following 13^th Party Congress’ direction

Following direction set at the 13^th Party Congress, the VSS plans to focus on a number of solutions.

First, the agency will study and propose the amendments to social insurance law to finalise the legal framework.

Second, it is necessary to continue insurance policy reform to strengthen confidence and increase public satisfaction. The VSS also plans to step up administrative procedure reform combined with IT application in order to reduce costs and waiting time.

Third, the VSS will continue to expand the insurance membership network, especially participants in voluntary social insurance, household health insurance, and step up supervision to identify violations and reduce insurance debts.

Fourth, continue supportive packages following the order of the Government.

Our Party and the State have always affirmed that economic growth must be carried out simultaneously with social progress and justice for the sake of human development. Effective implementation of the social security policy of which social and health insurance is the main pillar will harmonise benefits of stakeholders and become a sign of inclusive and sustainable development./.