The local authorised agencies also had to pay attention to promoting communication, minimising the withdrawal of one-time social insurance allowance to ensure social security goals, Phong said when he led a team to work with social security offices in Can Tho City and Dong Nai Province on July 14 to assess the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance during 2020-22.

At the meeting with Can Tho Social Security Office, Viet Nam Social Security Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu ordered the office to supplement and clarify some contents related to difficulties in increasing participants of social and health insurance as well as propose ways to overcome difficulties.

The team works with Dong Nai Social Security Office

Lieu also required the office to point out problems in dealing with enterprises that owe social and health insurance and the situation's impact on employees' lives.

Previously, Dang Van No, Director of the office, said in 2020-22, the office made efforts to implement assigned tasks.

Thanks to the timely direction of the Viet Nam Social Security, the support from the city’s Party Committee and authorised agencies, the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance achieved many positive results, he said.

He also mentioned a number of shortcomings in the implementation and suggested solutions to fix the shortcomings.

After the office’s report, presented by No, participants at the meeting discussed finding solutions for related issues such as evading payment of social and health insurance; the interests of participants of health insurance; the payment of medical expenses by the health insurance fund; and ways to prevent profiteering of social and health insurance funds.

In Dong Nai Province, Phong said he highly appreciated the results that the Dong Nai Social Security Office achieved in implementing policies and laws on social and health insurance.

Phong said the province, with a large number of participants in social and health insurance, was among the top localities in the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance in the country.

 The team works with Can Tho Social Security Office

Therefore, difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance in the province are believed to be a very important basis for the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs to study in the process of amending the Law on Social Insurance and the Law on Health Insurance, he said.

Speaking at the meeting, Director of Dong Nai Social Security Office Pham Minh Thanh said the office has effectively deployed solutions to increase participants in social, health and unemployment insurance over the past years, following the Prime Minister’s Directive No 34/CT-TTg, dated December 26, 2016 on strengthening solutions to develop social insurance participants.

Dong Nai is an industrial province. The labour force participating in social insurance in enterprises accounts for a large proportion, especially in foreign-invested enterprises, he said.

Therefore, the proportion of the labour force participating in social insurance in the province has always been higher than the national average, he said.

The office always exceeds the targets set by the provincial Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee and Viet Nam Social Security every year, he said.

In 2020-22, although the socio-economic situation faced many difficulties and challenges, the office proactively deployed assigned targets and tasks and achieved positive results, he said.

The office had closely followed the leadership and direction of the Viet Nam Social Security, provincial Party Committee, People's Council and People's Committee; coordinated with relevant departments and agencies to complete the assigned targets and tasks, he said.

The office has regularly coordinated with the provincial Department of Health to strengthen inspections and handle violations; propose solutions to prevent abuse and profiteering of health insurance fund; submit specific solutions for each medical facility to implement the assigned cost estimate for medical examination and treatment, covered by the health insurance fund, he said.

Viet Nam Social Security Deputy General Director Tran Dinh Lieu delivers his speech at the meeting with Dong Nai Social Security Office.

It also supplemented the content of checking the issue of certificates of leave to enjoy social insurance into the inspection outline for enterprises and medical facilities, covered by the health insurance fund. The move aimed to prevent abuse and profiteering of the health insurance fund, he said.

The office conducted inspections at 39 medical facilities, and established nine verification teams, thereby recovering more than VND12 billion (US$506,900) to the health insurance fund due to improper expenditure last year, he said.

In addition to the achievements, shortcomings and obstacles in the implementation of policies and laws on social and health insurance were still found, he added.

The shortcomings and obstacles include the policies and laws on social and health insurance revealed a number of problems but have not been adjusted in a timely manner; the policies on social insurance still omit a number of target groups; the policies of voluntary social insurance have not yet attracted more participants; labour management in enterprises is still inadequate; the number of people applying for one-time social insurance allowance tends to increase; and there are problems with the ceiling health insurance payment, he said.

Sharing concerns about handling social and health insurance debts, Nguyen Hoang Mai, deputy chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, said the current law does not define debt, but uses the term "delaying and evading payment of social and health insurance".

It causes legal difficulties in handling social and health insurance debts, he said.

Besides, he requested the office to clarify outstanding expenses of medical examination and treatment, covered by the health insurance fund, from 2021 and earlier that have not been appraised and settled, affecting the operation of local medical facilities, especially public medical facilities./.