The Deputy PM also required the communities to pay attention to spaces of cultural activities and entertainment for elderly citizens.
He stressed that spaces of cultural activities and entertainment for elderly people are essential to ensure the special citizens to be healthy and useful for the society.
He requested local governments to set the fiscal plan and set up funds for taking care of senior citizens as well as promote their roles in the communities as per the Law for Elderly.
Mr. Dam also ordered to offer vestige, landscape and tourist site admission discount for senior travelers.
As of 2018, Vietnam has more than 11.3 million elderly people, accounting for nearly 11.95 percent of the country’s total population, according to the National Committee on Elderly People. Of the figure, nearly 2 million are more than 80 years old and 10.8 million elderly people possess health insurance cards.
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien said that with fast ageing speed in the country, taking care of senior citizens plays a pivotal role. However, some localities are neglectful of the task, therefore, he noted, leaders in localities should pay more attention to the matter.
Moreover, medical workers’ skills in infirmaries specializing in taking care of old people should be improved to raise treatment quality.
More than 400,000 elderly people have no health insurance cards. Deputy Director of the Social Insurance Agency of Vietnam Nguyen Dinh Khuong said that elderly people without health insurance cards are mostly from near-poor families or destitute families which have just escaped poverty line or those who are not 80 years old to receive full support; hence, they decided not to buy insurance despite partial support.
Some localities proposed taking state budget or encouraging wealthy relatives to buy health insurance for them.
