Discussing in groups about the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance on the afternoon of October 24, delegate Thach Phuoc Binh, Tra Vinh delegation proposed considering adding subjects participating in health insurance paid by the state budget, with support for the contribution level being the elderly aged 60 years and older.

Expanding the scope of health insurance support

Explaining this proposal, the delegate of Tra Vinh delegation said that according to the provisions of the Law on the Elderly, people aged 60 and over are elderly people who receive social policy attention from the state.

However, according to current regulations, elderly people aged 80 and over who do not receive monthly allowances are entitled to social allowances and health insurance cards guaranteed by the state budget.

According to the Social Insurance Law 2024, the elderly aged 75 and over without a pension will receive social pension benefits and have a health insurance card paid for by the state budget.

“However, for people aged 60 and over to under 75 who do not receive pensions or benefits, there is no health insurance card paid by the state. I propose to include the group of people aged 60 to 80 years old, from July 1, 2025, people aged 60 to under 75 years old will have health insurance cards paid by the state,” delegate Thach Phuoc Binh proposed.

Also giving opinions on the beneficiaries of health insurance support from the state budget, delegate Luu Ba Mac, Lang Son delegation, said that it is necessary to add ethnic minorities living in areas in region 2, region 3, or difficult villages in mountainous areas.

“Ethnic minorities living in newly approved communes as zone 1 (communes newly recognized as new rural areas) still mainly work in agriculture, have low incomes, and have difficult lives. They do not have many conditions to access health insurance policies. This can affect economic development, leading to the emergence of poor households and households falling back into poverty,” explained a delegate from Lang Son.

Delegate Tran Thi Van, Bac Ninh delegation also expressed support for the policy of expanding the beneficiaries of health insurance support to better ensure the rights of people receiving medical examination and treatment and reduce out-of-pocket expenses of health insurance participants.

However, the expansion of health insurance benefits needs to be based on the principle of balancing revenue and expenditure and the stability and sustainability of the health insurance fund.

“We need to thoroughly, fully and comprehensively assess the socio-economic situation as well as the capacity of health insurance participants, the state budget, employers, the impact of increasing medical examination and treatment service prices... as well as the open-access policy on the payment capacity of this fund,” the female delegate expressed her opinion.

Need to solve the problem of synchronizing the primary health care system and specialized health care

According to Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, health insurance is also one of the very important factors to build a stable and solid Vietnamese health system. To develop the basic health system as well as specialized health care, we must have synchronous solutions.

“In addition to creating favorable conditions for people to receive timely treatment, there must be policies so that provincial and district hospitals must also meet technical requirements. People can stay right in their locality and do not have to go all the way to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to receive medical examination and treatment,” said Minister Dao Hong Lan.

“Regarding the beneficiaries of health insurance, there are opinions related to people in the ATK region, ethnic minorities in regions 2 and 3 transferred from region 1. During the drafting process, the Ministry of Health also really wanted to institutionalize it in the provisions of the law. However, through consulting with competent agencies, which beneficiaries will be included in the Government's Decree to ensure compliance with the law-making principles requested by the General Secretary and the National Assembly Chairman at the beginning of this session,” the Minister of Health explained.

Regarding investment policy for grassroots health care, the Ministry of Health has reported to the Government Party Committee and submitted to the Secretariat to issue Directive 25 on strengthening the grassroots health system in the new situation.

"This is a very important guiding viewpoint of the Secretariat related to the grassroots health system," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.

“From directives to specific programs and projects to support grassroots healthcare, we hope that the National Assembly, in its role, will have programs for the grassroots healthcare system. Because this is mainly focused on local, remote and isolated areas,” Ms. Dao Hong Lan expressed.