Sticking to the grassroots, closely coordinating with local Party committees and authorities to promote propaganda and raise people's awareness of family health insurance, so that each person understands that participating in health insurance is the "key" to accessing the best health care services - this is the way of Thuan Chau District Social Insurance, contributing to increasing the rate of the population participating in self-paid health insurance every year.
“Contribute when you are well - save when you are sick”
In Chieng Pha commune - a locality that has just been recognized as a new rural commune in early 2024, this year, people in the three villages of Sai Chien, Huoi Quynh and Hung Nhan will no longer be issued health insurance cards. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thang, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: Since September 2023, we have been propagating and explaining to people that after being recognized as a new rural commune, a part of households will have to buy health insurance cards themselves. Because they understand the importance of health insurance cards, although they are being issued and switched to self-purchase, most people still buy health insurance cards for the whole family.
Arriving at Huoi Quynh village, Chieng Pha commune, along both sides of the spacious, scenic concrete road, are solidly built houses, dragon fruit gardens, coffee, tea... stretching out. Talking to Ms. Dieu Thi Len about participating in self-paid health insurance, she said: Although I am young and healthy, I think I cannot predict my health, if I am unlucky enough to get sick and have to be hospitalized, I will have to pay a large amount of hospital fees, which will affect the family's economy . This year, my husband and I participate in health insurance for 584 thousand VND.
As for Ms. Luong Thi Hoa, Cu village, Tong Lanh commune, who has diabetes, she often has to go to the hospital for check-ups and buy medicine. Ms. Hoa said: "Participating in family health insurance, the medicine I buy each time is covered by 80% of the cost, so the amount of money I spend is not much. If I didn't have health insurance, I wouldn't have enough money to buy medicine so often."
Through conversations with local people, we found that they all have a good awareness of participating in family health insurance. Participating in self-paid health insurance is a practical way to take care of the health of family members. This shows that the staff of the district social insurance agency and the local government have coordinated to widely disseminate information so that people understand and actively participate in health insurance.
Diversified forms of propaganda
Entering 2024, Thuan Chau district has 2 more communes, Chieng Pha and Chieng La, meeting the new rural standards. Of which, Chieng Pha commune has 4 villages, with 457 households currently being issued health insurance cards switching to self-purchase of health insurance cards. Thus, the total number of people who have to self-purchase health insurance cards in the whole district will be 5,637 people. In reality, there are some people who still rely on the support of the State. There are also cases where they think that they are not sick so they do not need to participate in health insurance. Moreover, medical services have not met the needs, there is still a situation of ordering the purchase of medical supplies and buying additional drugs from outside, because the prescriptions covered by health insurance do not have enough types of drugs...
To attract people to participate in self-paid health insurance, Thuan Chau District Social Insurance has implemented synchronous solutions. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of Thuan Chau District Social Insurance, shared: From the beginning of the year, we have coordinated with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to advise the District People's Committee to issue a decision to assign targets for developing social insurance and health insurance subjects to communes and towns. At the same time, organize conferences to assign targets for developing social insurance and health insurance participants and sign commitments between the Chairmen of the People's Committees of communes and towns with the Chairman of the District People's Committee on implementing targets for developing social insurance and health insurance participants. Coordinate with communes, towns, and collection service teams to propagate the development of subjects participating in self-paid social insurance and health insurance in the area. Advise the Departmentof Education and Training to implement health insurance policies for educational institutions and student health insurance.
Propaganda work is carried out in many forms, such as regular propaganda on the loudspeaker system of the village and commune; integrated into meetings and conferences of the commune, village, and sub-region. District Social Insurance officers and commune officers directly go to the village to propagate and mobilize households to participate in self-paid health insurance. Propaganda content is about the State's regulations on health insurance policy, rights and obligations of health insurance participants; newly updated and supplemented policies; difficulties that are supported when going to see a doctor and get treatment...
This year, the people of Tong Lanh commune benefited from Decree No. 75/2023/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 146/2028/ND-CP dated October 17, 2018 of the Government detailing and guiding measures to implement a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance. Accordingly, the cost of purchasing a health insurance card is only nearly 300,000 VND/person. After reviewing, the commune has 9,242 people who need to participate in self-paid health insurance, so far 8,955 people have participated.
Ms. Lo Thi Hong, a civil servant in charge of the field of labor, war invalids and social affairs in Tong Lanh commune, shared about mobilizing people to participate in self-paid health insurance, she said: Every time we go to the grassroots level and talk directly with the people, we analyze specifically, for example: If you do not participate continuously or have an interval of more than 90 days, the value of using the health insurance card must be valid after 30 days. Therefore, if you buy it when you are sick, it will be a disadvantage for the participants. With the current cost of participating in self-paid health insurance, each month you only need to pay nearly 24,000 VND/person/month to have a health insurance card (Tong Lanh is the only commune in the district that enjoys the regime according to Decree No. 75/2023/ND-CP of the Government). This amount is only enough to buy a few painkillers, but it reduces the economic burden when you get sick and have to go to the hospital for treatment...
In other communes in the district, the propaganda and mobilization of people to participate in self-paid health insurance is also carried out in many forms: Integrated in conferences and meetings of the commune and village; regular daily propaganda on the loudspeaker system of the commune and villages, on zalo groups, Facebook of the village and residential groups. At the same time, the management board of the villages also "goes to every alley, knocks on every door, checks every person" to analyze and explain to people about the necessity of participating in family health insurance.
Goal of universal health insurance coverage
Sharing with us about the people's agreement to participate in family health insurance, Ms. Luong Thi Sinh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Phong Lai Commune, said: 100% of households in 13 villages in the commune are eligible to purchase health insurance themselves, with a total of 1,840 households, accounting for 96.5% of the total population in the commune (66 poor and near-poor households are still provided). People have good awareness about participating in health insurance, so up to now, 1,448 households have participated in family health insurance, accounting for nearly 78.7% of the total number of households that have to buy. We are continuing to mobilize the remaining households to participate in family health insurance, with the goal of increasing the health insurance coverage rate of the commune.
Also talking about mobilizing people to participate in family health insurance, Mr. Hoang Van Thang, Party cell secretary, Head of Huoi Quynh village, Chieng Pha commune, excitedly said: Participating in family health insurance is very beneficial, because the participation fee is reduced according to the number of people in the family, so the cost of participating in health insurance for the whole family is significantly reduced. Currently, 100% of households in the village participate in family health insurance.
By the end of February 2024, Thuan Chau district had 171,524 people with health insurance cards, reaching 95.24% of the district's population. Of which, the number of people participating in self-paid health insurance was 4,142 people, accounting for 73.4% of the total number of people participating in self-paid health insurance.
Discussing the issue of increasing the health insurance coverage rate in the district, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of the district Social Insurance, added: We continue to advise the district People's Committee to issue documents directing this task. At the same time, coordinate with the Party Committees and authorities of communes and towns to review and compile a list of households to propagate and mobilize people to participate in health insurance, contributing to ensuring social security in the area. Strive for health insurance coverage to reach 95% or more for groups of subjects not covered by the State budget.
Meeting and talking with the people, we realized that they all understood the meaning and benefits of participating in family health insurance. That shows the efforts of the officials in charge of this work in Thuan Chau district, as well as the local Party committees and authorities at all levels in the district, with the desire to increase the health insurance coverage rate so that all people can access the best health care services.
Hong Luan, Nguyen Thu
Source
![[Photo] General Secretary To Lam works with the Standing Committee of Quang Binh and Quang Tri Provincial Party Committees](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/6/25/6acdc70e139d44beaef4133fefbe2c7f)
Comment (0)