"Grandmaster" of health insurance advocacy

Ms. Ngo Thi My Nga is known as the "champion" of health insurance mobilization in Cai Rang ward.

Ms. Nga shared that on average, each year she mobilizes more than 6,000 health insurance cards, including new participants and re-participants, equivalent to 80% of the ward's target of expanding health insurance coverage.

Ms. Nga has been involved in local work since she was young, for 36 years now, of which nearly 20 years have been in the field of health insurance. Before the merger of provinces and cities, Ms. Nga held many positions in the youth union, the Red Cross, the Agent Orange victims association, HIV/AIDS collaborator, population collaborator and social insurance collection agent of Le Binh ward, old Cai Rang district.

Being “versatile” is a favorable condition for Ms. Nga to mobilize the community to participate in health insurance. She is close to the residential area, familiar with and close to most of the local households. Many people who encounter difficulties or have questions related to social policies, paperwork, including health insurance, often contact Ms. Nga for support.

As in the case of Mr. Quoc Hai (65 years old) in Yen Binh area, who works as a boat driver to take tourists to Cai Rang floating market, every year at the end of September - beginning of October he contacts Ms. Nga to register for the expiration of his health insurance card. Mr. Hai said that he and his wife have bought health insurance for more than 5 years, according to the voluntary health insurance policy. Many times, when work is busy, the card is about to expire, but he and his wife forget, Ms. Nga calls and texts to remind them. "Ms. Nga is familiar with the health insurance regulations, gives enthusiastic advice, and does the procedures quickly, so my wife and I feel very secure," said Mr. Hai. According to Mr. Hai, although the cost of participating in health insurance is higher than before, it is okay. Buying insurance is for self-protection, it is better not to get sick and have to use it.

Ms. Nga said that she created a system of lists of people who have participated in health insurance, participation time, card expiration time, prescribed cost levels, etc. Based on that comprehensive and detailed list, Ms. Nga manages effectively and promptly reminds people to prepare costs to re-join when the card is about to expire. Another good experience is that Ms. Nga divides groups according to residential areas. Just by naming a household in a neighborhood or street, she will remember the entire residential area in that area.

The work of promoting and mobilizing health insurance requires many "secrets". Ms. Nga said that first of all, the benefits of health insurance related to the physical health and "financial health" of each individual and family are integrated into local meetings, departments, organizations and during the process of visiting relatives in the community. In addition, Ms. Nga expands her friends list on the social network zalo and regularly updates new information related to health insurance on her personal page to inform the community. She also calls and texts to mobilize those who have not yet joined health insurance.

Ms. Nga also owns a travel company, regularly organizing tours outside the province and is supported by local people. During the trip, Ms. Nga consults and explains the regulations of health insurance with the motto "brief, clear, easy to understand". For example, one of the most concerned issues is the level of family health insurance contribution, which Ms. Nga often answers fluently with the amount decreasing from the first person to the next in the same household, respectively 1,264,000 VND, 885,000 VND, 758,000 VND, 632,000 VND and 506,000 VND...

Through the explanation, people trusted and registered to participate in health insurance for many years. After people paid, Ms. Nga immediately handed over the receipt and quickly updated the information, transferring the money to the superior agent, to ensure the rights of the people. There were times when there were many people registering for health insurance, she worked during the day and could not keep up, so she had to work at night, to promptly enter the buyer's information into the system, ensuring that within 10 days, the old buyer could use health insurance and within 1 month, the new buyer could use the card when needed.

For many years, Le Binh Ward, old Cai Rang District has always been the first in the local health insurance campaign, receiving awards from all levels. Ms. Nga herself was also awarded by the Steering Committee for implementing social insurance and health insurance policies of the ward. Ms. Nga was also honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Vietnam Social Security for her outstanding achievements in health insurance campaign.

Currently, Cai Rang ward has over 21,000 people, accordingly the target of health insurance mobilization has also increased. Ms. Nga said that she will continue to try and contribute with the government, departments and organizations to achieve the local target, ensuring the health care rights of the community.

Article and photos: THU SUONG

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/-kien-tuong-van-dong-bao-hiem-y-te-a192861.html