On February 16, 1995, the Government issued Decree No. 19/CP establishing the Vietnam social insurance industry on the basis of unifying the social insurance organizations at the central and local levels under the system of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Labor Confederation, in which the main function and task is to organize social insurance revenues and expenditures, settle policies and preserve, invest and grow the Social Insurance Fund. Under the leadership of the Party and State, the implementation of social insurance and health insurance policies has gained important achievements, contributing to the sustainable social security development and stabilizing the people's life.

Next, on January 24, 2002, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 20/2002/QD-TTg on transferring the function of organizing the implementation of the health insurance policy from the Ministry of Health to Vietnam Social Security. This is an important decision in unifying the implementation of the policy; At the same time, from here, the inadequacies and overlaps between the state’s and the career’s management function have been gradually removed, facilitating the implementation of social insurance policies in an effective and professional way, which is also in line with international practices.

With 25 years of construction, efforts and continuous growth, Vietnam Social Security has accomplished encouraging achievements.

Social insurance coverage is constantly expanding year by year, if in 1995 only 2.2 million people participated, by the end of 2006 (the first year of implementing the social insurance law), there were 6.7 million participants. And by the end of 2019, the figure was 15.2 million (1.2 times higher than in 2006 and about 5.7 times higher than in 1995). In 2008 - the first year of implementing voluntary social insurance, only 6.11 thousand people participated, meanwhile by the end of 2019, the number of participants in voluntary social insurance had about 600 thousand people (an increase of more than 70 times). Accordingly, the number of participants in unemployment insurance has also rapidly increased with 5.99 million since the start of implementation in 2009 to 13.43 million in 2019. Especially, the number of people and enrollment rates out of the total population increased impressively, exceeding the assigned targets with over 85.3 million participants, corresponding to the 90% coverage of the population, an increase of 68.8 million people compared to 2003 (when the function of implementing the health insurance policy is transferred to Vietnam Social Security).

In 25 years of operation, the social insurance industry has settled over 112.5 million people entitled to social insurance benefits, of which: nearly 2.5 million people receive monthly social insurance benefits; nearly 10 million people receive one-time social insurance benefits and more than 100 million people receive short-term social insurance benefits (including sickness, maternity, convalescence and health rehabilitation). Also with nearly 10 years of implementing the unemployment insurance regime, nearly 5 million unemployed workers have been entitled to unemployment benefits; More than 180,000 unemployed people are supported with vocational training; More than 1.39 million people were consulted about job placement.

In the field of health insurance, from 2003 to 2018, the social insurance industry collaborated with the health sector to ensure benefits for more than 1,748.5 million people for medical examination and treatment with health insurance. On average, each year, over 109 million people pay for medical care costs covered by health insurance; Particularly in 2019, medical service costs were paid to over 170 million people, an increase of nearly 2 times compared to 2009.

The above figures show that the coverage of social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance policies has been constantly expanded. Every year, hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of people have been protected through social insurance and health insurance, contributing to ensuring social security, creating safety and social stability, towards the goal of social justice.

Looking back on 25 years of construction and growth, generations of cadres, civil servants, officials and employees in the Vietnam social insurance system always feel honored and proud to have made significant contributions to ensuring social security of the country.