The proposal came under the draft of the revised Law on Social Insurance.

The draft law added chapter III on the social security retirement benefits, which stipulates that Vietnamese citizens aged 80 years and above without pension or other monthly social insurance benefits will be entitled to the social security retirement benefits, guaranteed by the State budget.

In addition, people, who receive monthly social security retirement benefits, will be granted health insurance cards in accordance with the Law on Health Insurance.

If a person, who is enjoying social security retirement benefits, dies, the relatives taking care of the funeral will be entitled to a lump-sum funeral allowance of VND10 million (US$425).

The Government stipulates the adjustment of the monthly social security retirement benefits and funeral allowance on the basis of increased consumer price index and economic growth in line with the State budget.

The revised Law on Social Insurance proposes to provide social security retirement benefits of VND500,000 ($21.2) per month instead of VND360,000 ($15.3) per month for people, aged 80 years and above, who have no pension and no monthly social insurance allowance

Assessing the impact of the amendment of the draft law, the drafting agency said that, according to the proposal under the draft, the additional expenditure for the adjustment of the social security retirement benefits is estimated at more than VND2.2 trillion ($93.5 million) per year.

The amount does not include expenses incurred when providing health insurance cards for the beneficiaries.

Also in the draft law, the drafting agency submitted that for people, who are 60 years old or older and have reached the retirement age as prescribed by law, but are not eligible for pension and social security retirement benefits, will be entitled to a monthly allowance during the period before receiving the social security retirement benefits. The allowance is equal to VND500,000 ($21.2) each month.

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Statistics show that, currently, the number of people receiving pensions, monthly social insurance benefits and monthly social allowances is more than 5.1 million nationwide, accounting for 35 per cent of the total retirees.

By the end of January 2023, the total number of participants in social, health and unemployment insurance nationwide was over 17.2 million, an increase of over 640,000 people compared to the same period in 2022; in which, the number of compulsory social insurance participants reached over 15.8 million people and increased by 643,000 over the same period in 2022; the number of voluntary social insurance participants is more than 1.4 million people, an increase of 3,300 people compared to the same period last year. Notably, the number of health insurance participants reached nearly 89 million people and reached 92.4% of the population participating in health insurance. The total revenue from social, health and unemployment insurance reached VND 27,392 billion, an increase of VND 469 billion over the same period in 2022.

The VSS has also directed and guided the social security agencies of provinces and cities to implement measures to ensure the benefits of social and health insurance for the people and employees on the occasion of the 2023 New Year and Lunar New Year. In total, the whole industry has paid more than 51,000 billion VND to pension recipients in January and February 2023, helping social insurance participants have an amount of money to enjoy Tet holiday.

People's social, health and unemployment insurance benefits continue to be guaranteed. Accordingly, the number of newly settled social insurance benefits is 793,982 people, and 45,445 people are entitled to unemployment insurance benefits. The number of healthcare visits using health insurance in January was over 14.15 million, an increase of about 4.9 million compared to the same period last year.

In particular, the VSS industry has also successfully organized the program "Bringing a warm Tet to disadvantaged health insurance patients - Year of the Water Cat 2023" nationwide with thousands of gifts awarded. Along with that, the program to donate voluntary social insurance books and health insurance cards was successfully implemented and spread across 63 provinces and cities; specifically 16,288 social insurance books and 128,338 health insurance cards; a total value of 53.4 billion VND.

VSS General Director Nguyen The Manh chaired the briefing session of the VSS in February 2023.

The whole sector shall continue to actively coordinate with relevant ministries and branches in participating in the development and amendment of important draft laws and documents related to the implementation of social and health insurance regimes and policies. The VSS has issued many documents for professional guidance; implemented digital transformation, collection, finance and accounting, personnel organization, and handled administrative procedures, etc.

Duong Van Hao - Director of the Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card, assessed, the collection and development of participants of social, health and unemployment insurance throughout the sector have many positive signs. In the coming time, the whole sector needs to focus on implementing a number of tasks, including, to focus on advising local authorities to develop and finalize resolutions on assigning development targets to participants; to advise the provincial steering committee for the development of participants in social and health insurance to direct and assign targets to Steering Committees at all levels, especially targets on health insurance.

Regarding the health insurance policy, Le Van Phuc - Director of the Department of Health Insurance Implementation forecasts that 2023 will be higher than that of 2022. Accordingly, the Department will soon advise the plan, and coordinate training on the use of assessment software, ensure effective implementation of the new assessment process and control costs of medical care covered by health insurance more closely. In addition, there will be inspection and guidance in a number of localities with large health insurance expenditures in the past year.

The Inspectorate Department, the Department of Finance and Accounting, and the Information Technology Center also informed and noted related operations, especially those serving the collection and development of participants, such as accelerating unexpected specialized inspection in abbreviated form; resolutely handling administrative violations; publicizing the names of employers who owe social and health insurance premiums according to the Law on Social Insurance.

It is necessary to forecast the situation and come up with a scenario to successfully complete the task

Regarding the tasks in the coming time, General Director Nguyen The Manh suggested that the units continue to closely follow the direction of the Government and the industry to seriously implement the implementation, and work closely with the ministries and sectors to remove difficulties in job execution, thereby offering scenarios, programs and plans to deploy in a synchronous and effective manner.

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Manh emphasized that the units need to accelerate the implementation of tasks and review the outstanding plans and programs for timely issuance; in which, the focus is to give out the best performance, ensuring the interests of the people and employees, especially focusing on ensuring the interests of patients undergoing medical treatment covered by health insurance; continue to implement solutions to support and resolve difficulties for medical facilities under the authority of the sector and coordinate and advise on solving problems under the authority of the Government, relevant ministries and branches.