Related news Health insurance coverage reaches 87.25 percent of population VSS, Danish Embassy ink deal on health insurance-related cooperation Accelerating roadmap for universal health insurance

The Decree 143/2018/NĐ-CP also outlines a guide as to how to enforce the Law on Social Insurance.

The Government has officially issued a decree stipulating the details of compulsory social insurance for foreign employees in Vietnam, which will take effect on December 1 this year.

Under the decree, foreigners working in Vietnam with a work permit, practice certificate, or practice license granted by competent Vietnamese authorities and under definite-term labour contracts or contracts with a term of one full year and over shall be subject to compulsory social insurance.

They shall be entitled to the following social insurance regimes – sickness, maternity, workplace accident, occupational disease, retirement, and survivor allowance.

Those temporarily transferred from mother companies abroad to subsidiary firms in Vietnam or reaching retirement age shall not be subject to the compulsory social insurance scheme.

This exclusion is aimed at addressing the concern of foreign enterprises over the duplication of social insurance payments.

According to Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee Bui Sy Loi, the compulsory social insurance for foreign workers is necessary to ensure fairness between Vietnamese and foreigners and between enterprises which only use domestic employees and those that employ foreigners.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the number of foreign employees in Vietnam increased from 63,557 in 2011 to 83,046 in 2016. They mostly come from Asian countries, accounting for 73% of the total, followed by European nations (21.6%) and American countries (2.4%).

Over 81% of Vietnamese population covered by health insurance

Some 81.3 million people across Vietnam have been covered by health insurance by the end of May, up nearly 21 million people from 2012 or 35.6% and representing 81.7% of the population.

 

Draft plan on social insurance reform supported by PCC members

The draft plan on reforming social insurance policy received much support from members of the 12th-tenure Party Central Committee (PCC) when it was discussed at the fourth working day of the committee’s 7th plenary session on May 10.

 

WB offers Vietnam recommendations on social insurance reform

The World Bank (WB)’s experts have suggested Vietnam promptly reform its social insurance sector systematically in order to ensure the balance between collection and spending in the mid-and long-term.

 

Source: NDO/VNA