Social Protection

Building social protection floors
and comprehensive social security systems

Result achieved

Linked projects

Outcome summary

Policy options for the revision of the Health Insurance Law were formulated

Outcome achieved

The revision of the Health Insurance Law is on going with the aim of better health protection to people, more effective governance and administration of the health insurance system, and improved financial sustainability of the system. Policy options were formulated. The legal review - preparatory step toward the proposal for Health Insurance Law revision in line with Convention 102 – is starting. It will include a specific focus on the analysis of the impact of the new law on gender. The regulatory impact assessment of the Health Insurance Law includes a specific focus on the analysis of the impact of the new law on gender. The Government and the ILO jointly developed one technical note aiming to identify the poverty, vulnerability and natural disaster context and the rationale for and global experience around risk-informed and shock responsive social protection. The technical note provided an overview of the current social assistance and disaster risk management systems and the challenges and opportunities to further linking of these systems.

ILO's contribution to the outcome

The ILO, with support of the Government of Luxembourg, supported the review and preparation for the Health Insurance Law revision through organization of a large scale orientation workshop in Oct 2018 on the key elements of the reform (including scope of coverage, benefit package, referral system, provider payment mechanisms, management of the funds). The meeting gathered 180 participants, including social partners from the central and provincial levels. The ILO supported to conduct a legal mapping exercise to take stock of all the legal documents (laws and sub-law documents) stipulating the issues related to health insurance to examine if any gaps or overlaps exist in the legal system in alignment with Convention 102. The ILO, with the support of the ILO/Irish Aid project, and in partnership with FAO, supported MOLISA to conduct a review study and consultations on the issues of disaster-informed and shock-responsive social protection system that allows proactive approaches and builds long-term resilience against disasters/shocks. Recommendations drawwn were provided to MOLISA for strengthening Viet Nam’s social assistance system to better support households before, during and after natural disasters. On 16 May 2018, the ILO in collaboration with MOLISA organized a workshop to disseminate the report.

Gender equality & non-discrimination

The technical notes on rationale for increasing retirement age (May 2018) submitted to MOLISA included a proposal for equalizing the retirement age between men and women. Such measure will have a significant gender impacts, which will ensure the rights of working and the rights to social adequacy of millions of Vietnamese women. The National Master Plan on Social Insurance Reform (MPSIR) endorsed by the Government in May 2018 aims at a high quality and comprehensive national social insurance system that offers income security to all citizens across the lifecycle, protects the workers in both formal and informal sectors. The Technical note on Multi-Tiered Child Benefits submitted to the Government as the inputs for developing Social Insurance Short-terms Benefit packages proposes to introduce a child/family benefit to cover 100% children in Viet Nam from 0-15. If the proposal is endorsed by the Government of Viet Nam, it will help to improve gender equality in Viet Nam. In particular, it will offers public transfers or services to families alleviating the private burden of care—disproportionately borne by women around the world— which can enable women to remain in or re-join the workforce. The ILO also supports MOLISA to submit a proposal to the Government of Viet Nam to introduce a multi-tiered maternity benefit that ensures the right to income protection during maternity for all. If this is endorsed it is expected to increase the coverage of maternity benefits from 30% at the moment to 100% of the pregnancy female population. The ILO is supporting VGCL to improve their staff’s knowledge and skills for communication work on health insurance system and maternity protection for female factory workers.
2019 VNM151 Social dialogue