In essence, Viet Nam's social protection system is multi-layered, performing all four functions, specifically the promotion function of the first pillar on employment, minimum income and poverty reduction; prevention of social insurance; provision of social assistance and protection of people through the basic social services system. Thus, Viet Nam's social protection system is multi-layered and quite comprehensive. Individuals and households that do not achieve a minimum level of income through employment (pillar 1) will receive support through social insurance (pillar 2) or social assistance schemes (pillar 3).

Viet Nam's social insurance network has many advantages, in terms of impact and flexibility.

First, people participating in social insurance schemes are supported by the Government, with lower income households receiving more support. The government contributes 30% for poor households, 25% for the near-poor, and 10% for other participants.

Second, contribution levels, times, and modalities are very flexible. People can choose the level of contribution that is suited to their financial capacity. The minimum level is equal to the poverty line. The payment time is flexible. In the past, twenty years of contributions were required to be eligible for a pension. Resolution 28, however, calls for “gradually reducing the minimum number of years of payment of social insurance contributions to 15 years, towards 10 years” (R28, 2018, page 4). Therefore, people at the age of 50 can still start participating in social insurance schemes and benefit from the pensions when they are 60 years old. Moreover, people have the right to choose to switch from the compulsory social insurance scheme to voluntary social insurance. However, the level of benefits will depend on the time and level of contribution based on the principle of ‘pay – benefit’ of social insurance schemes. Despite low levels of benefits, the pension will be a monthly cash transfer and that is very important for every citizen when they get old and If they are ill.

Therefore, encourage everyone to join the social insurance system (both compulsory and voluntary) and should not make one-time withdrawals. If many people decide to withdraw their social insurance contributions once or the SI coverage is low, it will cause an imbalance between the two financing sources for social protection system, including the 'pay - benefit' source contributed by SI participants (under the pillar of social insurance) with the 'don't pay but benefit' which is financed by the state budget for social insurance beneficiaries (under the social assistance pillar). If the 'pay-benefit' component is smaller, more people will not have a pension when they get old, then the Government will have to use the State funding which is budgeted for the social assistance pillar to cover the non-social pension people. Thus, the level of benefit and coverage of social assistance is definitely affected.

Health insurance policy is very important. Health insurance (HI) is one of four social insurance policies, i.e., compulsory, voluntary, unemployment and health insurance. Unlike social insurance, which applies the principle of “pay – benefit/go”, HI follows the principle of “sharing”. That is, HI is paid by many people, but few benefit from it. Everyone wants to enjoy SI, but no-one looks forward to using HI cards. Because no one wants to get sick. However, in fact, we cannot avoid being sick sometime during our lifetime.

In terms of HI card holder’s benefits, health insurance is like a protective shield when people get sick. A HI card holder can be financed from 80% - 100% of health care services if he goes to the registered hospital/health care center, and from 40% - 60% if he goes to the non-registered one. You don’t recognize the importance of HI when you are healthy and wealthy. Only when you are sick and poor, is "the most expensive bed in the world in the hospital". Therefore, the slogan of health insurance is "Pay when you are healthy, benefit when you are ill".

In terms of social benefits, health insurance and/or social insurance is a sharing mechanism among citizens and between the Government and citizens, this leads to more social justice. More importantly, the second net (SI pillar) is to minimize people to fall into the last net (social assistance) of the social protection system.

3 key solutions for expanding social insurance coverage:

First, strengthen communication activities extensively and intensively. Based on Bloom's Taxonomy, the cognitive domain is broken into the six levels of objectives, i.e., Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. Our communication program just reaches the first level. Many people don’t know and understand the importance of SI schemes. It is crucial to strengthen communication campaigns get more people to understand, believe in and participate in—and persuade their relatives to enroll in—SI  schemes.

Second, provide alternative solutions to provide financial support for those who withdraw one-time social insurance. We may provide preferential loans to help them solve their temporary problems. In other cases, they are allowed to withdraw only 8% of their direct contribution and hold 14% of contribution paid by the employers in order to keep them in the SI system.

Third, promote the application of IT. As it provides SI contributors with timely and accurate information about their ‘pay-benefit’ situation. Therefore, it helps build people’s trust in the system and willingness to join and encourage other people to join as well.