Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has said the Government was committed to supporting health, social insurance and finance sectors to complete health insurance policies.

Nhan was speaking at a meeting yesterday to mark Health Insurance Day.

"Education and health insurance are two of the most important social security areas," he said.

The Health Insurance Law was approved by the National Assembly and came into effect by July 1, 2009. The health sector expects to be able to provide health insurance services to all Vietnamese by 2014.

Nhan asked the health, finance and social-insurance sectors to propose a finance mechanism harmonising the interests of patients and health insurance funds.

He also requested the health sector to upgrade and improve services at the grassroots level to reduce patient overload at central hospitals. Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu said the goal was to provide health insurance for all by 2014.

Last year, the number of those on health-insurance fell 5.6 per cent to 56.6 per of the population.

From VietNam News