Students who join health insurance to get life-long code

The insurance code would be used for recording insurance history and processing insurance payment claims, said Tran Dinh Lieu, deputy general director of Vietnam Social Security (VSS).

Under the new regulation, the monthly fee for medical insurance for students is 4.5 percent of the State basic salary level, equal to VND58,500 (US$2.5), increasing from 3 percent last year.

However, each student would pay 70 percent of the fee; the rest would be paid by the State.

The fee could be paid in three-, six-, nine- or twelve-month terms.

The cardholders, excluding poor students, receive benefits of up to 80 percent of their medical treatment fees.

In this school year, many localities have introduced policies to encourage students to join the insurance programme.

Students of poor families may be offered assistance up to 70 percent of the insurance fees.

The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong paid 70 percent of insurance fees for ethnic minority students.

Student medical insurance is compulsory.

According to the statistics of VSS, in this school year, the percentage of students joining medical insurance has reached 92.5 percent, equivalent to 15.9 million students nationwide, as compared to 90.5 percent and 15.6 million students last school year.

However, to reach the goal of 100 percent of students joining the medical insurance, schools nationwide were asked to disseminate information about the benefits of medical insurance among students and parents, said Lieu.

In fact, many people, including students and parents, were not aware of the benefits of the medical insurance.

In many education entities, the fee of medical insurance was not separated from other fees, creating misunderstanding among students and parents.