With the goal of "leaving no one behind", on July 15, Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee Hoang Quoc Khanh sent an Open Letter to agencies, units and People's Committees at all levels in the province to support funding to buy health insurance cards for people in difficult circumstances.

According to the report of Son La Social Insurance, thanks to the attention and participation of the entire political system, the work of social insurance and health insurance in Son La has had many positive changes. Accordingly, by the end of 2023, the whole province had 1,278,316 people participating in health insurance, reaching a coverage rate of 98.3% of the population, exceeding the target assigned by the Prime Minister and the Resolution of the Provincial Party Congress. However, by 2024, the number of participants decreased because many people in difficult circumstances in communes, wards and towns in region I and communes meeting new rural standards were no longer supported by the State budget and the province to buy health insurance cards.

Mr. Dinh Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Insurance, spoke at the card awarding ceremony.

“By July 2024, the entire Son La province had 1,251,911 people participating in health insurance, reaching a coverage rate of 95.3% of the population. Thus, there are still over 60,000 people without health insurance cards, including many people in difficult circumstances, who have just escaped poverty...”, said the report of Son La Social Insurance.

Based on this reality, on July 15, 2024, Mr. Hoang Quoc Khanh - Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee sent an Open Letter to agencies, units and People's Committees at all levels in the province to support funding to buy health insurance cards for people in difficult circumstances. In the Open Letter, Mr. Hoang Quoc Khanh emphasized that sharing love is a humane and humanitarian act, a tradition of "mutual love and support" of the Vietnamese people. Therefore, in order for many people to be protected by the social security net, to have their medical examination and treatment costs paid by the Health Insurance Fund, etc., the leaders of Son La province called for the generosity of units, enterprises and benefactors to join hands to contribute; especially mobilizing each cadre to donate at least one health insurance card to people in difficult circumstances.

Localities receive donations to buy health insurance cards from organizations and benefactors.

“The People's Committee of Son La province believes that, with the community's cooperation, the people who receive support will have more motivation to rise up, overcome their fate and continue to sow seeds of kindness in life” - the Open Letter clearly stated.

Immediately after the Open Letter was sent, the donation to buy health insurance cards for people in difficult circumstances spread strongly, receiving active response from agencies, units, businesses, localities and people in the province.

As the unit directly advising the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to issue an Open Letter calling for the purchase of health insurance cards to give to people in difficult circumstances, Mr. Thieu Quang Ngai, Director of the Social Insurance of Son La province, said that this is one of the initiatives of the Social Insurance of the province to strive to complete the target of reaching a coverage rate of 96.1% of the population participating in health insurance. At the same time, it creates consensus among the entire political system and the people in implementing social security policies in the locality.

Also according to Mr. Ngai, in the face of the decreasing trend of health insurance participation rate due to the impact of policies, Son La Provincial Social Insurance has implemented many fundamental and long-term solutions such as advising the Steering Committee for implementing social insurance and health insurance policies of the province to direct the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to preside over and coordinate with the People's Committees of districts and cities to study sanctions and provide guidance on including them in the conventions and village regulations of groups, villages and sub-regions on compliance with health insurance laws. All people are responsible for participating in health insurance to serve as a basis for reviewing cultural families annually, and unifying the way of doing things throughout the province.

Notably, based on the conclusion of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee at the Conference to evaluate the results of the first 6 months of the year and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2024 of the Steering Committee for implementing the provincial social insurance and health insurance policies, Son La Provincial Social Insurance directly advised the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to issue an Open Letter to call for the cooperation of all agencies, units, businesses and people for the purpose of buying health insurance cards to give to people in difficult circumstances.

After only 2 months of responding to the Open Letter of the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, up to now, the whole Son La province has had 60 agencies and units donate more than 630 million VND. This amount was promptly transferred to the provincial Social Insurance to buy health insurance cards for people in difficult circumstances who are not eligible for health insurance support from the State budget. In particular, many units donated large amounts of money such as: Thuan Chau District Medical Center, Provincial People's Court, Son La College, Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital and Provincial Social Insurance...

“Every heart, every sharing through this appeal will help the poor and those in difficult circumstances have a solid support when they are unfortunately sick or ill. More meaningfully and also our wish is that through these mutual love and support activities, we will promote the strength of great solidarity, thereby joining hands to build a culture of social security - creating a sustainable social security system” - Mr. Thieu Quang Ngai emphasized.

Khanh Le - Ngoc Mai