Spreading humane values

The insurance sector’s “Giving needy people with social insurance books and health insurance cards” programme has attracted the participation of officials, employees and labourers in the whole sector as well as society, said Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong. 

On November 23, VSS organised a ceremony to launch the programme to gift social insurance books and health insurance cars to the needy across the country. The practice aims to spread the State’s social security policy, targetting ethnic groups who are not receiving State financial support for health insurance premiums; those who have just escaped poverty and do not have health insurance cards; those from nearly-poor households and low-income households that haven’t participated in the social insurance and health insurance system and other vulnerable groups.

Accordingly, the programme successfully provided about 10,000 social insurance books and nearly 120,000 health insurance cards for needy people nationwide between November 23 and December 10, which will be allocated to localities based on the list of potential beneficiaries.

Vice chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong presents insurance books and cards to local people

Pursuing the desire to continue spreading the programme’s humane values, VSS worked with localities’ authorities and donors to present social insurance books and health insurance cards to impoverished people across the country from December 10-20. Those given to the needy people in Vi Xuyen District are part of the 320 social insurance books and 210 health insurance cards gifted to poor people in Ha Giang Province.

On the occasion, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong expressed thanks and gratitude to donors, especially the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank); the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV; the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank); the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank); the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) and Vietnam Post for their meaningful actions and having accompanied Vietnam’s social insurance sector in social security activities.

Illustrative image (VSS)

"This is not only a material contribution but a spiritual encouragement, sharing with the needy people the financial burden for medical check-ups and treatment when they fall sick, and facilitating the needy people to join the voluntary social insurance scheme to enjoy retirement pension and healthcare when they get old,” said Mr. Cuong.

“My family and I are aware of the benefits when joining voluntary social insurance. Now we are so delighted to be presented with a social insurance book because it will help us a lot financially,” said Luong Ngoc Hai, a recipient.

Addressing the event, Chairman of Vi Xuyen District’s People’s Committee Hoang Thanh Tinh expressed his thanks to Vietnam’s social insurance sector for their fine sentiments to people in Ha G Giang Province.

“The programme is of great significance, creating strength to connect kind-hearted people and spread humane values, contributing to socio-political stability and national development,” said Mr. Tinh.

He called for the VSS to continue implementing the programme so that many more needy people nationwide can benefit.

“The district will prioritise and mobilise all financial resources to help pay health insurance premiums for the poor people in the locality; and have solutions to involve the whole social-political system in implementing social insurance and health insurance laws and policies,” said Mr. Tinh.    

Fulfil the targets

On the occasion, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong met with the provincial social insurance agency on the implementation of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance policies in the province.

Director of Ha Giang Province’s Social Security Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong said the provincial social insurance agency has yielded positive results in the collection of insurance premiums and development of participants, contributing to expanded coverage of social insurance and health insurance and improved services to quickly and fully pay insurance benefits for participants.

In 2022, the Ha Giang Social Security carried out 38 inspections at 175 units, fulfilling the target set by the VSS and up 127.27 per cent over the same period last year.

Vice chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong presides over a working session with Ha Giang Social Security

Regarding the implementation and application of software, the provincial Social Security established a Working Group to implement the Prime Minister’s Decision No 06/QD-TTg on developing the application of data on population, identification, electronic authentication data for national digital transformation in the 2022-25 period with a vision to 2030.

So far, information of 616,667 out of 855,470 social insurance and health insurance participants (equal to 72 per cent) has been synchronised with the national population database. The province is adding and synchronising data from various sources to integrate health insurance information into chip-based ID cards.

The provincial social insurance agency has also disseminated and instructed the local people and labourers to use the digital social insurance app – VssID. There have been 93,105 users of the VssID, accounting for 11 per cent of the total participants in the province.

The provincial Social Security has worked with the Department of Education and Training to issue health insurance cards for students in the province. By November 30, 2022, all 206,144 pupils have received health insurance cards.

However, Director of Ha Giang Province’s Social Security Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong said there still exist shortcomings in the compliance with laws on social insurance and health insurance, citing the cases of some private enterprises that prolong the probationary period, or contribute social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance premiums at a level much lower than the actual income of the labourers, etc.

Additionally, the use and hiring of labourers remains unsustainable at many small-sized enterprises (some only employ between three and five labourers) with low productivity and business performance.

Appreciating the achievements that Ha Giang Social Security has made, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Van Cuong said the Social Security should continue upholding the solidarity and determination to fulfill all targets and tasks assigned in 2022.

He urged the agency to maximize information technology in inspections to detect violations in the implementation of social insurance and health insurance policies, and to accelerate and renew communications work to further promote the role of organisations and unions in encouraging the local people and labourers to join the social insurance and health insurance scheme sustainably.