Towards universal health insurance

Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital staff guide people to use drugs in the list of health insurance payments.

One morning in early August 2025, at the Dong Kinh Ward Health Station, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang, a small trader at Gieng Vuong Market, came to complete the procedures for health insurance examination and treatment. Ms. Hang shared: Previously, because I did not understand the benefits, I did not participate in health insurance. But after the Social Insurance officer came to my place to propagate and explain, I understood and decided to buy cards for my family of 4.

That small story reflects the grassroots advocacy and propaganda efforts of the Provincial Social Insurance, which is an important factor contributing to bringing the health insurance policy to the people. The Resolution of the Provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term has set a target of bringing the health insurance coverage rate to 98% of the population. With the strong leadership and direction of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Committee, and the coordination of all levels and sectors, the Provincial Social Insurance has synchronously deployed many solutions to raise people's awareness and develop health insurance participants.

Specifically, the provincial Social Insurance advises the Provincial People's Committee to issue specific annual plans, assign development targets to each grassroots Social Insurance, and sign coordination regulations with the People's Committees of communes, wards and socio- political organizations. Communication forms are increasingly diverse, from centralized conferences to small-group propaganda sessions, and direct consultation to each household. In the past 5 years, the provincial Social Insurance has organized more than 2,300 direct propaganda sessions at the grassroots level; promoted propaganda on social networks... The whole province maintains 6 collection service organizations to help people access policies more conveniently. In particular, taking advantage of social networks, electronic information portals and VssID applications has helped policy information spread faster, wider and more effectively.

Not only the provincial Social Insurance, the Party Committee and local authorities also accompany in the work of developing health insurance. Ms. Hoang Thanh Hoa, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Na Sam commune said: Identifying health insurance development as one of the key tasks, we integrate propaganda in village meetings, union meetings, and at the same time direct schools to socialize support for students with especially difficult circumstances to participate. Thanks to that, the health insurance coverage rate of the commune has reached 98%.

Along with developing participants, the provincial Social Insurance coordinates with the Department of Health and medical examination and treatment facilities to sign contracts, control costs, and ensure patient benefits with the number of medical examinations and total medical examination and treatment costs increasing year by year. In 2024, the whole province will have more than 1.07 million medical examinations and treatment under health insurance, an increase of 2.6% compared to 2023; total medical examination and treatment costs under health insurance will be over 690 billion VND, an increase of 13.5%.

With these practical solutions, health insurance coverage has increased gradually over the years. In 2020, the whole province had more than 732,000 people participating in health insurance, reaching a coverage rate of 92.8%, by the end of 2024 it was 764,769 people, reaching a rate of 94.1%. It is estimated that by the end of 2025, the whole province will have 779,662 participants (an increase of more than 47,000 people compared to 2020), reaching a coverage rate of 95% (an increase of 2.2% compared to 2020).

However, those encouraging figures have not yet reached the targets set out in the resolution, due to many objective reasons such as: the characteristics of mountainous provinces, the income of a part of the population is not stable, the economy recovers slowly after the pandemic, the situation of workers working outside the province causes interruptions in participating in health insurance; the subjects receiving budget support are increasingly narrowing when communes meet new rural standards...

To resolve that problem and increase the health insurance coverage rate towards the goal of health insurance covering over 96% of the population in the next term, Ms. Nong Thi Phuong Thao, Director of the Provincial Social Insurance, said: In the coming time, the Provincial Social Insurance will continue to coordinate and advise on expanding support policies for health insurance participants; promote communication associated with digital transformation; closely coordinate with Party committees, authorities and socio-political organizations to improve service quality, taking people as the center; at the same time effectively manage and control the health examination and treatment fund, ensuring the legitimate rights of participants.

The efforts of the provincial Social Insurance in the past term have contributed to bringing health insurance policies to the people, strengthening the belief in a sustainable social security system. With high political determination and practical measures of the provincial Social Insurance, the belief in expanding health insurance coverage according to the resolution of the Provincial Party Committee for the 2025-2030 term will continue to be realized, contributing to ensuring social security and taking care of people's health in the area.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/bhyt-toan-dan-tu-nghi-quyet-den-hanh-dong-5058538.html