In new adjustments to medical insurance, the Ministry of Health has proposed to increase premium by six percent of monthly salary, doubling the current rate by three percent.
Every month, employers will extract a certain amount from employees’ monthly salary for payment towards premium of medical insurance. Moreover, the ministry has proposed to decrease medical insurance payment for members of a family who all register for medical insurance or dependent’s insurance payment if his or her bread winner takes medical insurance.
The Ministry also decided that the Medical Insurance Fund will pay 100 percent of examination and treatment fees for those who served in wartime and children under six. The fund should also pay most hospital fees for those who take out medical insurance for period exceeding regulated time and receive treatment in hospitals they register in and buy medicines according to government insurance index.
One adjustment to medical insurance is that a 10 percent reduction will be made in payment for patients who do not receive treatment in hospitals they are not registered in. There are two proposed ways of payment for these patients.
One is that the medical insurance fund will pay 60 percent for inpatients who want to receive treatment in third class hospitals; 40 percent for second class hospitals and 20 percent for first class hospitals.
Meanwhile for outpatients, the medical insurance will be 30 percent if they are taken to third class hospitals; 20 percent for second class hospitals and 10 percent for first class hospitals.
Another way is that the medical fund will pay for inpatients who receive treatment in hospitals they do not register in and outpatients will themselves pay the charges.
According to the Ministry, after the Law of Medical Insurance has been implemented in the country for four years, around 68 percent of residents participated in the program. However, people still complain of harassment and difficulties when going to hospitals.
To overcome these shortcomings as well as draw more participants, the Ministry proposed to adjust the law in a way to benefit people, and the Prime Minister also approved the same in a bid to cover 70 percent of the population by 2015 and 80 percent by 2020.
In addition, the health sector is increasing measures to provide quality treatment and better facilities to patients.
