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Under the new decision, 75.4% of population will join health insurance system by the end of this year. The universal coverage rate will be increased constantly to 78% in 2016; 79.8% in 2017; 81.4% in 2018; 82.5% in 2019; and 84.3% in 2020.

Especially, some northern localities were assigned to ensure high rates including Dien Bien and Hoa Binh with 99%; Tuyen Quang and Lao Cai with 98.6%; Ha Giang and Thai Nguyen with 98.2%; and Son La with 98%.

In the short term, the Municipal and Provincial People’s Committees were asked to finance 30% of health insurance fee for people in nearly-poor households and encourage students, pupils, and medium-income families to buy health insurance.

The Viet Nam Social Insurance was asked to instruct local social insurance to disseminate the Law on Social Insurance in order to fulfil the set goals on schedule.

According to the Project on moving toward universal coverage of health insurance in Viet Nam, as of late 2014, the coverage accounted for 71.6% of the population.

The health insurance fund paid 100% of medical costs for a large number of beneficiaries including poor and ethnic people. The policy facilitates people especially vulnerable ones in accessing healthcare services./.  

By Khanh Phuong