More HCM City locals insured in 2016

Patients with health insurane wait for health check at Thu Duc Hospital in HCM City.(Source: VNA)

HCM City (VNA) – Increasing hospital fees and benefits from health insurance
helped increase the number of people buying health insurance in HCM City last
year by nearly 662,000 compared to 2015, according to the city’s Social
Insurance Agency.

At a
meeting reviewing the agency’s activities last year held last week, Cao Van
Sang, the agency’s head, said that the city last year had around 6.4 million of
people buy health insurance.

The number
is the city’s highest compared to last several years, Sang said, and added that
health insurance covered 78 percent of the city’s total population.

This year,
the city aims to increase the coverage to 80.7 percent, he said.

Although
hospital fees hiked by 30 percent last March under the Ministry of Health’s
roadmap to the end of 2017, the city’s health insurance fund still ensures the
balance and its abundance is nearly 700 billion VND (30.8 million USD).

The fund
in 2015 was 1.1 trillion VND (48 million USD), but the city only kept 22 percent
according to the government’s regulation. The rest was used to buy and provide
free health insurance cards for people near the poverty threshold last year.

Health
insurance helps reduce the burden of paying higher hospital fees which could
reach 500 millionVND-600 million VND (22,026 USD-26,431 USD).

A
52-year-old woman of Dong Nai Province who suffers from breast cancer said that
she enjoys benefits from health insurance for her treatment.

Sang said
that the cost for every outpatient and inpatient to examine and treat each time
is the highest in the country, with the average 1.5 times higher than in other
provinces and cities.

People who
buy household-based health insurance receive the discount. The second member
pays 70 percent, 60 percent for a third one, 50 percent for a fourth one and 40
percent for the fifth one.

The
benefits helped increase the number of people buying under this method last
year by more than 300,000 compared to 2015.

More than
2 million people bought compulsory social insurance last year, nearly 7,000
people voluntary social insurance, and more than 2 million people unemployment
insurance.

According
to Sang, the number of people with voluntary social insurance reduced because
the insurance did not attract people. They pay the total amount to buy social
insurance while people who buy compulsory social insurance pay a part of the
charge. [Their employers have to pay the larger part for them.]

People who
buy voluntary social insurance are at least 15 years old.-VNA