Bringing insurance policies to the people

"Pay in installments" to take care of your health"

As the main breadwinner in the family when her husband is often sick and her two children are still in school, all the difficulties and hardships fall on the shoulders of Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, residing in Huong So ward, Hue city. To have money to buy health insurance for the couple, every time she goes to the market to sell goods, she sets aside 50,000 VND to "contribute" to the insurance collector. After 1 year, that contribution is enough to "pay off" the debt of 2 health insurance cards of more than 2 million VND to the collector who previously created conditions for her to receive the card to extend the term. According to Ms. Huong, if the collector did not allow her to "advance" to buy the health insurance card, when the payment deadline comes, she would have to spend more than 2.5 million VND at once, and she would not know where to turn. Thanks to the enthusiastic support and advice of the collectors, the health insurance cards of both husband and wife have been continuously extended, ensuring their rights when going to medical examination and treatment at medical facilities.

In the same situation as Ms. Huong, Ms. Hoang Thi Vui (45 years old), residing in Quang Phu commune (Quang Dien) negotiated with the collection staff to "pay in installments" to be able to participate in voluntary social insurance for a period of 15 years to receive a pension when she reaches retirement age, while her children receive funeral expenses and death benefits. "My husband died early, I have to raise 2 children alone, so if I don't save up to participate in voluntary social insurance now, when I am old and no longer able to work, I will become a burden for my children and grandchildren. Therefore, I chose to pay 957 thousand VND/month so that I can later receive more than 3 million VND/month in pension to cover living expenses and receive a health insurance card for health care. Through negotiation with the collection staff, I was divided into 3 installments, each installment of more than 300 thousand VND at the beginning, middle and end of the month, which is quite convenient and reduces economic pressure. Currently, I have participated for 4 years and 2 months".

Through research, there are currently quite a few freelance workers choosing to participate in family health insurance and voluntary social insurance in the form of "installments", reducing the economic pressure of having to spend a large amount of money so that they can have a pension and a health insurance card when they are old. Instead of spending 1,263,600 VND/time (new price from July 1, 2024), people can participate monthly for 105,300 VND/month; or negotiate with the collection staff to "pay in installments" by day, by week... to reduce the payment amount to the lowest level. For voluntary social insurance, people can also choose the participation level, ranging from 297,000 - 7,887,000 VND/month and negotiate with the collection staff to divide it into smaller payment periods.

Ms. Dong Thi Nga, a collection officer in Hue City, said that in order to attract people to participate in insurance, in addition to experience in propagating and popularizing voluntary social insurance and family health insurance policies, collection officers are also flexible in the payment method to create conditions for families with difficult circumstances and unstable incomes to still be able to participate in these two types of insurance. Thanks to that, the number of people participating in the two types of health insurance and voluntary social insurance is increasing, which means that more and more households are benefiting from the State's policies.

According to Ms. Hai Yen, a collection officer in Quang Dien district, to increase the number of people participating in family health insurance and voluntary social insurance, she is flexible in her propaganda and mobilization methods with the hope of helping people understand and voluntarily participate. Those who can afford it will be encouraged to pay in one go, and those who have difficulties will be allowed to pay in installments, or pay out of their own pocket and then collect monthly. The important issue is how to make them see the benefits of buying voluntary health insurance and social insurance and save up to participate.

Collection staff propagate family health insurance and voluntary social insurance policies to people in Tan My market, Thuan An ward.

Flexible in closing

Along with negotiating with the collection staff to "pay in installments", or divide into many payment levels when buying a health insurance card, or participating in voluntary social insurance, the provincial Social Insurance has been flexible in the payment method to create conditions for people in difficult circumstances to still be able to participate in insurance types. Accordingly, people can choose one of the methods of paying voluntary social insurance, which are: paying monthly, once every 3 months, once every 6 months and once every 12 months; paying once for many years later but not more than 5 years at a time; employees who are old enough to receive pension can pay once for the missing years. However, the missing payment period must not exceed 10 years. For those who participate in social insurance, when they reach retirement age but do not meet the requirement of 15 years of payment, they can continue to pay voluntary social insurance and choose to pay once for the missing years to receive pension immediately after payment.

In particular, self-employed workers participating in voluntary social insurance pay 22% of their monthly income that they choose to contribute to the pension and death fund, but not lower than the poverty line for rural areas and not higher than 20 times the basic salary. Accordingly, the lowest voluntary social insurance contribution is VND 297,000/month and the highest is VND 7,887,000/month. In order to encourage people to participate in voluntary social insurance, the State supports a percentage (%) of the monthly social insurance contribution according to the poverty line for rural areas. Specifically, the support is 30% for people in poor households, 25% for people in near-poor households and 10% for other subjects.

In the first 6 months of this year, the number of people participating in voluntary social insurance and family health insurance increased compared to the same period. Currently, the whole province has 18,234 people participating in voluntary social insurance, reaching 54.02% of the plan; 1,160,037 people participating in health insurance, reaching 99.15% of the plan. To attract people to participate, in the coming time, the provincial Social Insurance will continue to promote communication work, explaining changes in contribution levels, State support levels and benefits to help people understand clearly.

Article and photos: Thanh Huong