The central province of Khanh Hoa will cover all health insurance costs for local ethnic minority people who have not benefitted from existing support programs in this field, the provincial People’s Council decided at its session on July 9. Currently 47,700 ethnic minority residents in 26 extremely poor communes in Khanh Hoa are entitled to free health insurance and free medical treatment under the Prime Minister’s decision QD 30/2007/QD-TTg. Furthermore, in 2013 Khanh Hoa began buying health insurance for ethnic minority people living under or just above the poverty line in 27 other communes, who total 11,050. The new scheme adopted by the provincial People’s Council will dole out around 2.6 billion VND each year to pay for health insurance for the remaining 4,210 ethnic minority people who do not belong to any of the two above-mentioned categories. With the plan, 100% of ethnic minority people in the province will be covered by health insurance. Khanh Hoa is home to the Raglai, Co Ho, E De and Cham ethnic minority groups with a total population of around 62,000. Besides medical care, Khanh Hoa also provides various social welfare services to its ethnic population using its own budget. (vietnamplus.vn Jul 10)
