Proposal to waive one year of health insurance premiums for people affected by storms and floods

Photo caption — National Assembly delegate of Thai Nguyen province Ha Sy Huan speaks. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Highly agreeing with the necessity and strategic significance of the National Assembly's issuance of the Resolution, delegate Pham Thi Kieu (Lam Dong) affirmed that this is a policy that demonstrates a long-term vision, consistent with the Party's viewpoint on caring for and protecting people's health, while also meeting urgent practical requirements when the health sector is under great pressure on finance, infrastructure and human resources.

Regarding the content of expanding health care benefits and reducing medical costs for people in Article 2, the delegate highly appreciated the orientation of implementing free hospital fees at the basic level within the scope of health insurance benefits until 2030. According to the delegate, this is a historic step, contributing to reducing the direct cost burden for people and strengthening social security.

However, for the policy to be feasible and sustainable, delegate Pham Thi Kieu suggested that the Drafting Agency should clearly define and quantify the basic concept of hospital fee exemption; stipulate more clearly the scope, roadmap and operating mechanism towards building a set of scientific and transparent criteria accompanied by a full assessment of scenarios for balancing the health insurance fund and the state budget. In addition, when increasing the benefits for policy beneficiaries and low-income people, the delegate said that it is necessary to calculate carefully so as not to put too much pressure on the fund source, ensuring policy breakthroughs but not trading off the financial sustainability of the health system.

Also interested in the content on the right to expand health care and medical expenses for people in Article 2, delegate Ha Sy Huan (Thai Nguyen) agreed with the policy that from 2026, people will be able to have regular health check-ups or free screening at least once a year according to priority groups and schedules.

However, delegates suggested that the Drafting Agency add regulations on specific priority groups, for example, the elderly, workers in toxic environments or workers in difficult areas so that localities can proactively arrange resources for implementation and unify nationwide; at the same time, propose assigning the Government to issue a framework for basic examination and screening to avoid the situation of scattered implementation and ineffective forms.

In addition, at point b, clause 2, Article 2, delegate Ha Sy Huan proposed to add content requiring clear identification of vulnerable people, low-income people and some priority groups to ensure consistency in the process of organizing and implementing the Resolution when it is passed.

It is considered that the regulation on organizing the pilot implementation of diversifying health insurance packages and supplementary health insurance according to people's requests mentioned in Clause 3, Article 2 of the draft is necessary and consistent with the development trend of the economy. However, according to the delegate of Thai Nguyen province, there should be regulations on supervisory agencies and mechanisms to protect insurance buyers, avoiding excessive commercialization in this field.

Regarding the policy of expanding health care benefits and reducing the financial burden on health care for people stated in Article 2, delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh (Lam Dong) highly agreed with the proposals in the draft Resolution, emphasizing that these are regulations that are deeply humane, promptly responding to voters' wishes, deeply demonstrating the State's concern for social security work.

According to delegates, many voters reflected that the burden of treatment costs is still the biggest barrier for patients. Many new generation drugs such as targeted therapy drugs and immunotherapy drugs have proven to be highly effective in treatment, helping to prolong life and improve quality of life. However, high costs prevent patients from accessing optimal treatment. Statistics show that drug costs always account for the highest proportion in the structure of medical examination and treatment costs, accounting for about 33%, although this is a decrease from 40-50% compared to previous years.

Therefore, delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh proposed updating the drug list in a timely manner, especially for cancer treatment drugs and new generation immunomodulators to reduce out-of-pocket costs for people, ensuring benefits for more than 95.5 million people participating in health insurance today.

"I think that priority should be given to drugs with strong clinical evidence and clearly proven effectiveness. The list should be updated flexibly and promptly according to the progress of international medicine, and the expansion of the list should be linked to the effectiveness assessment mechanism and cost payment to ensure that the payment is both fundamental and sustainable. This is a direct and practical solution so that patients, especially those with serious illnesses and those with difficult family circumstances, are not left behind in the treatment journey," the delegate stated.

In addition, delegate Trinh Thi Tu Anh suggested that the Party and State pay attention to having a special breakthrough policy to exempt one year of health insurance premiums from the state budget for people participating in voluntary health insurance in provinces directly affected and severely damaged by storms and floods in recent times.

"Currently, the State has a policy of providing free textbooks to students. Thus, if health insurance is also provided free of charge, social security will be guaranteed and health care for the people will be improved," said the delegate.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/de-xuat-mien-mot-nam-phi-bao-hiem-y-te-cho-nguoi-dan-bi-thiet-hai-boi-bao-lu-20251202113301423.htm