Students who join health insurance to get life-long code

Children’s ward at General Hospital of Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Each student who joins the medical
insurance programme would be provided with a social insurance code which could
be used for all their lives, according to a new regulation for medical
insurance, social insurance and unemployment insurance.

The insurance code would be used for recording insurance history
and processing insurance payment claims, said Tran Dinh Lieu, deputy general
director of (VSS).

Under the new regulation, the monthly fee for medical insurance
for students is 4.5 percent of the State basic salary level, equal to 58,500
VND (2.5 USD), increasing from 3 percent last year.

However, each student would pay 70 percent of the fee; the rest
would be paid by the State.

The fee could be paid in three-, six-, nine- or twelve-month
terms.

The cardholders, excluding poor students, receive benefits of up
to 80 percent of their medical treatment fees.

In this school year, many localities have introduced policies to
encourage students to join the insurance programme.

Students of poor families may be offered assistance up to 70 percent
of the insurance fees.

The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong paid 70 percent of
insurance fees for ethnic minority students.

Student medical insurance is compulsory.

According to the statistics of VSS, in this school year, the
percentage of students joining medical insurance has reached 92.5 percent,
equivalent to 15.9 million students nationwide, as compared to 90.5 percent and
15.6 million students last school year.

However, to reach the goal of 100 percent of students joining the
medical insurance, schools nationwide were asked to disseminate information
about the benefits of medical insurance among students and parents, said Lieu.

In fact, many people, including students and parents, were not
aware of the benefits of the medical insurance.

In many education entities, the fee of medical insurance was not
separated from other fees, creating misunderstanding among students and
parents.-VNA