Meanwhile, 291,000 people have bought voluntary social insurance and health insurance has covered 86 percent of the country’s population, exceeding the target assigned by the Government by 30 percent.

To encourage people to join voluntary social insurance, the government will offer a premium discount of 10-20 percent to poor people depending on their circumstances from January 1, 2018.

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As many as 13.52 million people have joined compulsory insurance by December 2017 

VSS Deputy General Director Pham Luong Son said that the VSS ranks second among 20 ministries and sectors pioneering in applying information technology in operations.

It has operated an IT centre and a customer service center to receive feedback from customers and deal with their complaints.

The VSS plans to issue electronic health insurance cards for customers to reduce administrative procedures and save time.

Son said that social insurance debts in 2017 are estimated at VND 5.73 trillion (USD 253 million), down 0.8 percent compared to 2016., saying that the new regulations on applying criminal punishment to insurance evasion cases from the beginning of 2018 is expected to be effective in reducing debts.

At the conference, the VSS also set major targets for 2018, including developing a database of the sector and completing an online public service system.

Source: VNA