Comrade Nguyen Khac Dinh, member of the Party Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly attended the discussion session at group 10, including the delegations of National Assembly deputies from Thai Binh, Dak Nong and Tien Giang provinces. Comrade Ngo Dong Hai, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly delegation of Thai Binh province chaired the discussion session.

National Assembly delegates from Thai Binh province participated in the discussion and expressed their agreement with the necessity of establishing Hue city under the central government. The establishment of Hue city under the central government on the basis of preserving and promoting the heritage values ​​of the ancient capital as well as the cultural identity of Hue is appropriate; demonstrating innovative thinking in urban development.

The delegates also assessed that the standards and conditions for establishment according to legal regulations all met the requirements, and the dossier ensured sufficient conditions to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and decision to establish Hue city under the Central Government on the basis of the entire natural area and population size of Thua Thien - Hue province. However, they requested that the central ministries and branches pay attention and create favorable conditions for Hue city under the Central Government after its establishment in resolving difficulties and problems; especially continuing to perfect institutions and law enforcement organizations for socio-economic development, creating new breakthroughs based on the foundation, strengths and characteristics of the locality, narrowing the gap between regions within the locality, between the central region and the peripheral regions; continuing to promote the heritage value of the ancient capital of Hue...

Also at the discussion session, delegates contributed comments on many specific contents in the draft Resolution on the organization of urban government in Hai Phong city, such as: the model of urban government organization in Hai Phong city; tasks and powers of local authorities when organizing urban government; organizational structure of the People's Council and People's Committee...

In the afternoon, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance. Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh chaired the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Dung, the provincial National Assembly delegation, expressed her hope that the National Assembly would pass the draft Law at this session so that the Law would soon come into effect, in sync with the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, thereby promptly removing and resolving inadequacies and problems arising in practice, ensuring the rights of health insurance participants as well as the rights of medical examination and treatment facilities. Regarding the subjects participating in health insurance, which are students, the delegate proposed to increase the support level to 50% and pay according to the educational and training institution without allowing them to choose the form of payment. Thus, it will lead to the remaining 2.8% of students who have not participated to participate in health insurance.

Regarding the use of the health insurance fund, the delegate proposed to increase the proportion for medical examination and treatment. The delegate analyzed that, in principle, the health insurance fund is a short-term fund, with revenue collected each year and expenditures made the same year, leaving only a surplus to cushion the following year and supplement the deficit in the health insurance fund. According to the report of the Ministry of Health, the reserve fund is currently accumulating nearly 50% of the annual health insurance fund without any measures to regulate and allocate from the beginning of the year for medical examination and treatment expenses or to increase benefits and levels. Therefore, if the reserve fund continues to be at least 5%, it is very high and may cause difficulties for the source of medical examination and treatment expenses for the people. Therefore, the delegate said that it is necessary to calculate specifically how much reserve is appropriate for cushioning when it has not been collected yet.

Agreeing with the need to amend the Law on Health Insurance and propose passing the Law according to the 1-session process, delegate Tran Khanh Thu, the provincial National Assembly delegation, said that the draft Law has provisions that will take effect from January 1, 2025, so there may be regulations that often take effect immediately, leading to difficulties for medical facilities. The delegate suggested that the Drafting Committee consider what is stipulated in the Law, try to specify it and promptly complete the draft regulations currently assigned to all levels.

Participating in the mechanism of connecting routes to allow patients to go to other facilities for examination and treatment without a referral. Delegates said that the regulation will support health insurance participants to access services more conveniently; but may miss the opportunity to detect early symptoms of some diseases because patients have skipped primary health care to go to higher-level health care, even in unnecessary cases. This will lead to reduced efficiency; even disrupt the professional hierarchy of the health system. Therefore, it is proposed to keep the scope of benefits as the current health insurance connection roadmap, but adjust and supplement the regulation assigning the Minister of Health to issue the definition of rare diseases and the list of serious diseases, rare diseases that use a one-time referral paper for the entire treatment process, not for a limited period of time within the fiscal year as at present. It is recommended to continue strengthening the capacity of the grassroots health system to be able to provide outpatient drug treatment for a number of chronic diseases uniformly across all professional levels of health facilities. Strengthen regulations to thoroughly resolve pressing issues in the process of issuing referral papers...

Vu Son Tung

(Office of the National Assembly Delegation and Provincial People's Council)