A conference on promoting social and health insurance policies and distributing health insurance cards to impoverished residents in Ho Chi Minh City was held on January 16 by the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and the Social Insurance Agency of the city.

The issuance of ID cards for children below 14 years old nationwide costs only VND900 billion (US$38.37 million) while saving up to thousands of billions of VND spent on vaccination and health records, health insurance cards, and student ID cards, among others, according to Minister of Public Security Gen. To Lam.

More than 4.8 million Hanoi residents had their health insurance cards integrated into their chip-based ID cards as of December 26, of which 271,000 people have put them into use.

The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) has exerted extra efforts in simplifying public administrative procedures and cutting time and costs for social and health insurance card holders and businesses.