The case of 'suspending' student health insurance in Phu Tho: Ensuring maximum benefits for students

At Ngo Xa Secondary School, 106 students had their parents pay for the whole year, but the school had not submitted their documents and money to Social Insurance, causing the students to be interrupted for about 5 months.

Regarding the incident that occurred at Ngo Xa Secondary School, Minh Thang Commune, Cam Khe District, Phu Tho Province, when many students were not able to participate in health insurance or only had their cards renewed for 6 months even though their parents had paid for the whole year, on June 18, Mr. Nguyen Van Dong, Deputy Director of Social Insurance Region XVIII, said that in the 2024-2025 school year, the rate of students in the whole Phu Tho province participating in health insurance reached nearly 99%. The incident that occurred at Ngo Xa Secondary School was a rare case that affected many students of the school's rights because they were not able to participate in continuous insurance.

During a meeting with a reporter from Vietnam News Agency, the Deputy Director of Social Insurance Region XVIII said that Ngo Xa Secondary School has 597 students, of which 58 are policy beneficiaries, poor households, and relatives are military or police officers, so they do not have to participate in health insurance.

Up to now, Ngo Xa Secondary School has paid the full amount for 539 students who are required to participate in social insurance and has had their insurance extended in time.

However, before the incident was reported by the press, through verification, Ngo Xa Secondary School had 106 students whose parents had paid for the whole year, but the school had not yet submitted the documents and money to the Social Insurance, causing the students to be interrupted for the first 5 months of the year (the last 6 months of the year had just been extended). This affected the students' continuous 5-year insurance participation process.

In addition, there are 119 students whose parents paid for health insurance at the beginning of the year but only received health insurance for the first 6 months of the year (the last 6 months of the year have just been extended).

To remedy this situation, on June 10-11, Ngo Xa Secondary School transferred two payment orders with a total amount of more than 45 million VND to remedy the card shortage from January to May 2025 and submit additional payments to fully renew the health insurance cards for 119 affected students for the last 6 months of the year.

Parents signed a petition to the authorities requesting clarification of signs of violations in the collection and payment of health insurance premiums at Ngo Xa Secondary School. (Photo: Ta Toan/VNA)

"The delay in submitting the students' health insurance application and premiums to social insurance, even though their families had paid for the entire year, caused these 106 students to not be able to participate in health insurance for 5 months in 2025, affecting their rights to participate in compulsory health insurance for 5 consecutive years, even though Ngo Xa Secondary School has remedied the situation by returning the money to the parents due to not being able to renew the health insurance card for the first 5 months of 2025...," Mr. Dong added.

Regarding social insurance, to overcome the above situation, and at the same time to ensure the rights of students to participate in health insurance continuously and without interruption, Mr. Nguyen Van Dong said that the unit directed the social insurance of Cam Khe district to continue to review the number of students who have been interrupted for more than 3 months (specifically 106 students at Ngo Xa School) who have not participated in health insurance continuously according to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance to submit to superiors for timely handling measures to ensure maximum benefits for students...

In another development, Mr. Bui Ngoc Luan, Head of the Departmentof Education and Training of Cam Khe district, said that through initial verification, the collection, submission of documents, and payment of health insurance fees for students at Ngo Xa Secondary School were not in accordance with the principles, causing resentment among parents and greatly affecting the district's education sector.

The Department of Education and Training of Cam Khe district has also coordinated with relevant agencies to fully extend health insurance cards for students from June to December 2025 to ensure the right to medical examination and treatment according to regulations. For those who have paid in full but have not participated in health insurance from January 1 to May 1, the money will be refunded.

"Currently, the incident is still being verified and clarified by relevant authorities. The viewpoint of the Cam Khe District Education Department is to handle the mistakes accordingly. Whoever is responsible must take responsibility, in the spirit of ensuring the rights of parents and students. The accountant of Ngo Xa Secondary School has also taken full responsibility," Mr. Luan shared.

According to the reporter's research, Point c, Article 22, Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance in 2014 stipulates the level of health insurance benefits, stating: People who participate in social insurance for 5 consecutive years or more will be entitled to 100% of medical examination and treatment costs when the amount of co-payment for medical examination and treatment costs in the year is greater than 6 months of basic salary, except in cases of self-examination and treatment at the wrong medical facility.

On the contrary, if a participant stops paying health insurance (more than 3 months), the 5-year continuous calculation process will be interrupted. The participant will lose the right to enjoy the incentives and when participating in health insurance again, the 5-year continuous participation period must be recalculated from the beginning.

Previously, on June 13, a reporter from Vietnam News Agency reported that many parents whose children are studying at Ngo Xa Secondary School expressed their anger and sent petitions to the authorities, requesting clarification of signs of violations in the collection and payment of health insurance premiums for students./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/vu-treo-bao-hiem-y-te-hoc-sinh-o-phu-tho-dam-bao-toi-da-quyen-loi-cho-cac-em-post1045026.vnp