Health insurance affirms its necessity even more strongly during the COVID-19 pandemic

Helping people to have access to health care benefits, to treat diseases at a reasonable cost, and to receive income support when sick is absoluteky the core issue to respond to epidemic outbreaks like COVID-19. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has introduced the concept: Social Health Protection (SHP), understood as a series of measures of the public sector or organized by the State and measures regulated private practice, against social unrest and economic loss due to reduced productivity, discontinuation or reduction of income, or control of the cost of treatment needed due to ill health. Social health protection emphasizes financial protection against health risks; Health insurance is one of the implementation mechanisms to protect social health.

Marielle Phe Goursat - an ILO technical expert in Vietnam - has been in charge of the project 'Supporting the expansion of social health coverage in Southeast Asia' for many years. She has also spent a long time researching and learning about health insurance as well as participating in activities to support the reform, formulation and implementation of this policy in Vietnam.

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Appreciating the process of formulating and perfecting policies, implementing health insurance policies and especially reaching the coverage rate of over 90% of the population participating in health insurance, Mrs. Marielle Phe Goursat said that it is totally possible for Vietnam to achieve the target of 95% of the population participating in health insurance by 2025. The benefits of health insurance are clearly seen when people's health care costs are guaranteed, health insurance indirectly contributes to income protection, and when income is guaranteed, families can better meet their essential life needs (such as food or nutrition) that keep them healthy. Healthy people with a secure income can better invest in the future and spend more on education. This helps develop human capital, leading to a better educated, healthier and more productive workforce.

Marielle Phe Goursat said, in the normal context, health insurance has already played an important role, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and affected the world like today, health insurance has affirmed its necessity even more strongly.

Protecting social health through the health insurance scheme is an effective tool of the Government of Vietnam to ensure: (i) treatment of those infected and (ii) facilitating early detection and isolation, (iii) protecting the income of those who test positive or are showing symptoms so that they can be isolated, thereby preventing further spread of the virus.

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Vietnam has reached its goal of having the majority of the population enrolled in health insurance before the COVID-19 crisis hit. This allows the implementation of a health protection policy, ensuring an immediate and automatic financial mechanism for all policyholders. Additional Government funds have contributed to other costs, including implementing the isolation, tracing strategy, testing, and now the vaccination campaign.

However, in the context of COVID-19, there is a problem of low population coverage for sickness benefits. People who are suffering from COVID-19 illness or need to be quarantined or unable to work during the quarantine have little or no protection to make up for this loss of income. This puts people at risk of difficulties, especially in the broader context of the global economic crisis affecting Vietnam.

Forming a culture of protecting social health as well as health insurance

As part of the project "Support for the expansion of social health protection in Southeast Asia" funded by ILO-Luxembourg, Marielle Phe Goursat and her team are also implementing an awareness campaign for students, forming a culture of social health protection, including the health insurance mechanism, emphasizing the benefits of participating in health insurance, for the cohesion and prosperity of the country of Vietnam.

Also from the implementation of project activities, Marielle Phe Goursat has a deeper perspective on the health insurance policy for students. ILO experts highly appreciate the rate of health insurance coverage for students in Vietnam. The obtained results show the compliance with the participation regulations of the students' families as well as the implementation process between the VSS and the Education and Training sector.

The Government's support of 30% of the contribution rate for the group of students is an effective source of motivation for families to help their children participate. The health insurance fund also allocates 5% of the revenue, serving school health, primary health care and prevention for students - which is a great advantage, thereby showing that Vietnam's health insurance policy is inclusive, bringing practical benefits to each specific target group.

Marielle Phe Goursat - ILO technical expert in Vietnam (Source: Internet)

However, Mrs. Marielle Phe Goursat said that there are still some limitations, when a part of young people are not really interested in health insurance, equalling a situation of "adverse choices", that is, some are still subjective about health care, and only participate in health insurance when there is a high risk of illness or disease or when really sick. It should also be noted that, in addition to the number of students who are participating in health insurance at school, there is also a large group of young people from 15 to 24 years old who are participating in the labor market every year; they may be participating in health insurance under other categories (household-based health insurance, employer-paid health insurance) or may not be able to participate if they are informal workers or are unemployed. In general, the employment of this group is often unstable, has low income and has many limitations to participate in health insurance on a regular basis. This group accounts for a large proportion of the estimated 10 million people who are not yet enrolled in health insurance and is a challenge to achieve universal health insurance coverage in Vietnam.

To overcome these limitations, the communication campaign of awareness raising for young people and students about community health protection and participation in health insurance play an important role. That is also the reason why Mrs. Marielle Phe Goursat and her colleagues implemented a communication project on public health protection and health insurance towards students. Within the framework of the ILO-Luxembourg project "Support for the expansion of social health protection in Southeast Asia", a knowledge contest called "Protecting people's health for cohesion and prosperity of Vietnamese society” jointly organized by the ILO and the University of Public Health for university students is being organized to empower students to become agents of social change and promoting the culture of social health protection.

From here, Marielle Phe Goursat emphasized the message of the important role of health insurance and called on young people to take the lead in participating in and promoting social health protection. Further enhance the role of students in promoting the formation of a culture of protecting social health as well as health insurance; create opportunities for students to learn and demonstrate their knowledge and skills into practical application. Form a forum for students to express their views, opinions, and creativity on health insurance and the development of health insurance policies in Vietnam.

Obviously, as the future generation of the country's workforce, young people in general and students in particular need to be well-guaranteed in terms of health care. In addition to family responsibilities, health insurance is a government policy, which provides a positive mechanism to achieve this goal; Expanding health insurance to young people will bring benefits both in the short term as well as in the long term. Young people also need to be aware of the importance of health insurance to play a more active role in promoting participation, thereby developing health insurance and gradually forming a foundation for social health care protection.