I am a foreigner residing in Vietnam. My husband is a Vietnamese employee covered by health insurance purchased by his employer. As a housewife, I still have no health insurance. As I know, foreigners in Vietnam are now allowed to purchase household health insurance. Where and how can I purchase health insurance in the country?
As provided by Vietnamese law, you can purchase household health insurance in Vietnam at the place where you has made your household or temporary residence registration if you do not fall into one of the following groups:
• Employees whose health insurance premiums are paid by themselves or their employers, including persons working under labor contracts of an indefinite term or labor contracts of a term of at least full three months; salaried enterprise managers; cadres, civil servants and public employees; and persons working on a part-time basis in communes, wards or townships as prescribed by law.
• Persons whose health insurance premiums are paid by social security organizations, including pensioners, persons entitled to monthly working capacity loss allowance; persons entitled to monthly social security allowance for their labor accidents, occupational diseases or diseases requiring prolonged treatment; persons aged full 80 years or more and entitled to monthly survivor allowance; commune, ward or township officers who have retired and enjoy monthly social security allowance; and persons entitled to unemployment allowance.
• Persons whose health insurance premiums are paid by the state budget, including officers, career servicemen, non-commissioned officers and other soldiers of the army who are in active service; professional officers and non-commissioned officers and technical officers and non-commissioned officers and cadets of, and non-commissioned officers and soldiers serving for a definite term in, the people’s public security force; persons engaged in cipher work and salaried like servicemen; cipher cadets enjoying entitlements like cadets of the army and public security academies, and relatives of these persons; commune, ward or township officers who have retired and enjoy monthly allowance from the state budget; persons who are no longer entitled to working capacity loss allowance and enjoy monthly allowance from the state budget; persons with meritorious contributions to the revolution (and their relatives) and war veterans; incumbent National Assembly deputies and People’s Council deputies at all levels; under-six children; persons entitled to monthly social relief allowance; persons from poor households; ethnic minority people residing in localities with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions; persons residing in islands; persons who have donated their body parts; and foreign students who enjoy the Vietnamese state budget’s scholarships.
• Persons whose health insurance premiums are paid with the state budget’s support, including persons from households living just above the poverty line, students and pupils.
To register for the first time your voluntary participation in health insurance, you have to prepare a dossier comprising the following papers:
• Declaration form for participation in health insurance;
• List of your household members to be registered for health insurance. This list may be made by any household member representing other members. In case of false declaration, the list maker may be held responsible before law and have to pay medical examination and treatment costs (if any);
• The original household registration book or temporary residence book (for checking);
• A photocopy of health insurance card of every card holder, to be enclosed with the list of household members to be registered for health insurance, for reduction of such person’s payable health insurance premiums.
You may submit such dossier to the People’s Committee of the commune, ward or township where you have registered your household residence or temporary residence.
You will be granted a health insurance card within seven working days after your dossier is received.- (VLLF)
