(Source: Internet)

Protecting the health of pupils and students is an important task for the Party, State, each family and society. In 1994, only two years after the health insurance policy was issued, health insurance for pupils and students was implemented across the nation.

Health insurance for pupils and students combines the education on and care of students’ health at school and medical check-ups and treatment at health clinics. In 2010, students became one of the first groups included in the compulsory health insurance scheme, marking a breakthrough in the implementation of health insurance.

Health insurance for pupils and students is an effective financial solution to care for those who will run the country in the future, thus helping them be healthy enough to become educated, allowing them to build and safeguard the nation in the future.                                                                                        

Many countries over the world have implemented health insurance policies in line with health care at school. In Australia, the UK, the US, Japan, Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, health insurance for students is considered a basic and long-term solution to care for the health of young generations.

Vietnam currently has about 25 million pupils and students learning at nearly 40,000 schools of all grades, from pre-school to university, accounting for 27 percent of the total population. Therefore, completing health insurance coverage over the group is extremely important to the implementation of heath insurance for all people.

It can be said that the legalisation of health insurance for pupils and students from voluntarily to compulsorily has matched with the implementation of health insurance for all people. Over the past nearly 30 years, the Party has paid attention to implementing health insurance policies. The Party’s guidelines and policies help orient the development of health insurance policies and the road map to health insurance for all people, thus contributing to ensuring social welfare.

Under the leadership of the Party, health insurance is proved to be a social policy conformable with the country’s renewal process which helps ensure the equality in health care for people, including pupils and students – the future owners of the country.

The legal framework of health insurance for pupils and students has been completed. Institutionalising Party policies on health insurance in the renewal process, the 1992 Constitution regulated that implementing health insurance facilitates health care for all people (Clause 39).

To realise this clause, on August 15, 1992, the Ministers’ Council issued Decree No.299-HDBT promulgating health insurance statutes which created a legal framework for the implementation of health insurance in Vietnam. The statutes regulated that health insurance was obligatory to officials and workers on duty, retirees, those off work as they lose their health, employers and employees. Therefore, pupils and students were subjects to voluntary health insurance.

On November 14, 2008, the National Assembly issued Law on Health Insurance No.25/2008/QH12. Regulations and policies on health insurance were systematised and became foundations to develop health insurance for social welfare scientifically, in which a roadmap to carry out health insurance for all people was regulated clearly.

Accordingly, on March 29, 2013, the Prime Minister approved a project to carry out the roadmap with the targets of maintaining all health insurance card holders and increasing the health insurance coverage in order to reach over 70 percent of the population joining health insurance by 2015, and 80 percent of the population joining health insurance by 2020. The Law on Health Insurance also stipulated that pupils and students should shift to become subjects to obligatory health insurance. Therefore, on January 1, 2020, pupils and students officially became subjects to obligatory health insurance.

On June 13, 2014, the National Assembly adopted Law No.46/2014/QH13 on revisions and supplements to several articles of the 2008 Law on Health Insurance, which took effect on January 1, 2015. This was an important step in completing laws on health insurance in Vietnam. Pupils and students continued to be selected as subjects to compulsory health insurance. The Government has directed ministries, localities, schools and students to actively implement the coverage of health insurance for students.

From 1995 to 2005, medical work at schools faced many difficulties. More than 80 percent of schools nationwide lacked full-time medical staff, while health care and education conditions were low due to the lack of infrastructure, equipment and operation expenditure.

These issues resulted in increases in several diseases such as short-sightedness, spinal curvature and dental problems. Notably, several diseases affected the physical and mental development of pupils and students when they were not detected early.

On July 12, 2006, then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung issued Directive 23/2006/CT-TTG strengthening medical work at schools. On March 27, 2009, he issued Decision No.401/2009/QD-TTG approving the programme on school disease prevention. Since then, the Ministry of Education and Training has directed education establishments nationwide to actively implement the two documents and worked with the Ministry of Health and related domestic and foreign organisations in carrying out medical work.

In recent years, medical work at school has improved, thanks to increases in funding for health care at school drawn from the Health Insurance Fund. The expense rose from 75 billion VND in the 2006-2007 academic year to 441 billion VND in the 2013-2014 academic year and nearly 600 billion VND in the 2015-2016 academic year.

With directions from the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training, and thanks to efforts to disseminate and improve the quality of medical check-ups and treatment, the number of pupils and students participating in heath insurance has grown each year. As of late 2016, 15.9 million pupils and students held health insurance cards.

To achieve the target of all students joining health insurance, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to continue working closely with the Health Ministry, the Vietnam Social Security, and local People’s Committees to intensify dissemination to raise public awareness of the role and importance of health insurance for pupils and students, continue improving the quality of medical check-ups and treatment, and perfect policies and laws related to health insurance for pupils and students.

International Cooperation Department