Health insurance improves the health of Lai Chau poor people

Hundreds of thousands of poor people in the province have been provided with health insurance cards.

Thao Thi Sung’s family is a poor Mong ethnic household in Say San 1 hamlet, Nung Nang commune.

In the past, it cost them a lot of money to go to provincial hospital for medical check-up and treatment because they didn’t have health insurance.

Now that the government program to grant health insurance for the poor has been in place, Sung and other family members are given free medical check-up and medicine.

Sung said that “without an insurance card I had to pay all kinds of medical fees. Now everything is covered.”

Nung Nang village has eight hamlets with about 550 Mong ethnic households. A great number of local people suffer from respiratory diseases because the commune is located 1,000 meters above sea level.

Le Thi Phuong, head of the communal medical station, said 95% of the villagers now find it easier to go for medical examination.

“Health insurance has reduced medical fees for the locals. All children have been covered with health insurance. But the problem is many of them have lost their insurance cards which then need to be re-issued,” according to Phuong.

Statistics from the provincial Social Insurance Department show that in 2015, 440,000 poor people had their medical fees worth US$4.2 million paid by the Health Insurance Fund.

Doan Thi Lan, director of Lai Chau’s Social Insurance Department, said, “almost everyone has a health insurance card. But in mountain provinces including Lai Chau a few people have not registered for health insurance due to their lack of knowledge.”