Hanoi (VNA) - Roughly 17 million or more than 18 percent of Vietnam’spopulation had not entered the health insurance programme by the end of 2016.Most are labourers, poor people and students, the Vietnam Social Insurance(VNSI) has said. Areport from the agency showed that more than 81 percent people were covered byhealth insurance in 2016, equivalent to 75 million people and 4.3 percent morethan 2015. Ofthe total, only 74,000 people from business households of agriculture,forestry, fishery and salt production have insurance, only 4.5 percent of thetotal population of this group. Themain reason for this, the agency said, was enterprises who evaded payinginsurance premiums for workers. Meanwhile, supervision of social and healthinsurance regulations remained poor. Co-operationbetween sectors in localities in implementing health insurance was alsoineffective, leading to difficulties in providing more people with insurance. NguyenThi Minh, VNSI General Director, said that the Law on Healthcare Insurance andits benefit to insurance buyers has encouraged people to join the programme. However,Minh said, to make the Ministry of Health’s 90 percent target for healthcoverage by 2020 feasible, it was necessary to alter mechanisms. Forexample, some poor people living on islands and in coastal areas have notrenewed their insurance cards after being given them two years ago, accordingto the official. Minhsaid the VNSI has opened more branches to expand health insurance nationwide.It has simplified administrative procedures for granting insurance cards tohelp people sign up for insurance.

Currently,62 out of 63 cities and provinces have achieved national targets for insurancecoverage. About 18 localities managed to have 90 percent of people covered byhealth insurance.  
Thelowest coverage r✤aಞte of 68 percent is Binh Thuan province.-VNA