Small card, big meaning

A patient with health insurance card, suffering from chronic kidney failure, undergoing dialysis at Thong Nhat General Hospital. Photo: H. Dung

Participating in health insurance helps people proactively take care of their health, reducing the burden of hospital fees, especially when they have serious illnesses or chronic diseases that require lifelong treatment.

Share the burden when sick

Realizing the importance of participating in health insurance, for many years now, all 6 people in Mrs. Phan Thi Gia's family (residing in Soc Ne hamlet, Tan Tien commune) have participated in health insurance.

Mrs. Gia said that she and her husband are old and often have to go to the hospital for examination and treatment, which costs 1-2 million VND/month. Although this is not a large amount of money, for families in difficult circumstances, living in remote areas like hers, it is not easy to get that amount of money. Thanks to participating in health insurance, Mrs. Gia and her husband do not have to worry too much about this expense.

In 2025, Dong Nai province was assigned by the Government to budget for health insurance examination and treatment costs of more than 4.4 trillion VND. In the first 6 months of the year, more than 2.2 trillion VND was used, reaching 51.6% of the total budget.

Similarly, for nearly 15 years, Mr. Nguyen Van Tien (residing in Dong Phu commune) has been proactively purchased health insurance by his children to take care of his health, in case of illness. In 2017, Mr. Tien unfortunately had a traffic accident, after which he developed many illnesses due to old age and poor health. On average, each year, Mr. Tien spends about 50 million VND on medical treatment, but thanks to participating in health insurance, most of which is paid by the Health Insurance Fund, Mr. Tien only spends a small amount of money.

More than a month ago, Mr. H.D.K. (46 years old, residing in Tam Hiep ward) experienced a "near-death" attack due to a severe myocardial infarction. Although Mr. K. was brought to the hospital late, with a team of highly qualified staff and modern equipment, doctors and nurses from Dong Nai General Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital ( Ho Chi Minh City) joined forces to save Mr. K.'s life using ECMO technique. The total hospital bill for Mr. K.'s treatment for more than a month was more than 700 million VND. Thanks to his participation in health insurance, Mr. K. received more than 300 million VND from the health insurance fund, the rest was paid by his family.

“I never thought I would have such a severe heart attack, because my health was normal before. Fortunately, thanks to my continuous participation in health insurance for many years, the fund paid me a large amount of money, many times larger than the amount I spent on health insurance every year,” Mr. K. confided.

Ms. PTN (residing in Xuan Loc commune) confided that she has suffered from chronic kidney failure for the past 7 years. The doctor said that she must undergo dialysis for the rest of her life to ensure her health. Therefore, if she does not participate in health insurance, her family will not be able to afford this hospital fee.

According to statistics from the Social Insurance (SI) of Region XXVIII, up to now, the whole province has nearly 4 million people participating in health insurance, reaching 91.6% of the population in the area. In the first 6 months of 2025, many patients were paid an amount of 100 million VND or more by the Health Insurance Fund. For example, patient NHA (17 years old, residing in Cam My commune, suffering from impaired perception, sepsis, increased blood urea, acute kidney injury, requiring a ventilator) was paid more than 414 million VND; Mr. LVĐ. (94 years old, residing in Tan Trieu ward, suffering from pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, hypokalemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) was paid more than 391 million VND...

100% of medical examination and treatment facilities in the province have implemented health insurance registration using chip-embedded citizen identification cards, VNeID and VssID applications. Thereby, it aims to facilitate people and improve efficiency in management work.

Towards universal health insurance

Deputy Director of Social Insurance Region XXVIII Nguyen Thi Quy said that there are currently 145 medical facilities in the province (including 41 public facilities and 104 non-public facilities) participating in health insurance examination and treatment. In the past 6 months, the Health Insurance Fund has paid more than 2.2 trillion VND for more than 4.7 million health insurance examinations and treatments in the whole province.

The leader of Social Insurance in Region XXVIII emphasized that health insurance is a humane policy of the Party and State, contributing to taking care of people's health, stabilizing people's lives, minimizing social instability caused by illness and disease, especially for the poor, people in difficult circumstances, and lonely elderly people.

“In daily life, everyone wants themselves and their families to always be healthy. But when the risk of illness or unexpected accidents occurs, health insurance will be a “companion” to help share financial worries for medical treatment for people. There have been cases where the Health Insurance Fund has paid up to billions of VND/year. This is an unimaginable amount for many families,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Quy emphasized.

Aiming at universal health insurance coverage, in recent times, the insurance industry has coordinated with departments, branches and localities to strengthen propaganda work so that people understand the great benefits of participating in health insurance and actively participate. At the same time, ensuring full rights of health insurance participants, improving the quality of medical services for patients with insurance cards.

In particular, the People's Council of Dong Nai province issued Resolution No. 10/2022/NQ-HDND dated July 8, 2022 stipulating the level of health insurance contribution support for a number of subjects in the province for the period 2022-2025. To date, more than 135,800 people belonging to the following subjects: ethnic minorities, people with serious illnesses, people aged 70-79, students with disabilities in integrated education and students at the Dong Nai Center for Children with Disabilities... have been granted health insurance cards according to the above resolution.

Social Insurance of Region XXVIII is developing a plan to consult with departments, branches, and the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council to issue a resolution to support health insurance payments for people in the province in the next phase.

Hanh Dung - Vu Thuyen

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/y-te/202506/tam-the-nho-y-nghia-lon-a851b24/