Noticeable contents of foreigners' health insurance - Những nội dung cần lưu ý về BHXH với người nước ngoài

Employees who are foreign nationals working in Vietnam become compulsory participants in compulsory SI programs if they obtain work permits, practicing certificates, practicing licenses issued in Vietnam, indefinite-term employment contracts or employment contracts valid for at least one year with employers in Vietnam. The following persons are not required to participate in the compulsory health insurance program:

- Intracompany transferees referred to in clause 1 of Article 3 of the Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP;

- Employees reaching retirement age stipulated in clause 1 of Article 187 of the Labor Code.

As also prescribed in this Decree, from January 1, 2022, each of employees mentioned above must pay the monthly health insurance contribution amount equal to 8% of his/her monthly pay into the retirement and death benefit fund.  

* An employer must make monthly contributions which are the percentages of the payroll for employee’s SI contributions as follows:

+ 3% paid into the sickness, maternity and paternity insurance fund;

+ 0.5% paid into the occupational accident – occupational disease insurance fund;

+ 14% paid into the retirement and death insurance fund from January 1, 2022.

Foreign employees should pay attention to the following insurance benefits:

Sickness benefits:

a) An employee who works under normal conditions is entitled to take 30 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of less than 15 years; 40 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period ranging from 15 years to under 30 years; 60 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of at least 30 years. 

b) An employee who takes up arduous, toxic, dangerous, or extremely arduous, toxic, dangerous, jobs or occupations in the classification list issued by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, or works at areas where the region-specific allowance coefficient is at least 0.7, is entitled to 40 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of less than 15 years; 50 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period ranging from 15 years to under 30 years; 70 days of sick leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of at least 30 years.

- An employee on sick leave in connection with diseases defined in the List of diseases of which long-term treatment is required, issued by the Ministry of Health, is entitled to the following sickness benefits:

a) He/she is entitled to the maximum period of 180 days of sick leave, inclusive of public holidays, new year holidays or weekly rest days.

b) If he/she receives continuous treatment after the period of entitlement to sickness benefits stipulated in point a of this clause has expired, he/she is entitled to continue to receive the insurance benefit which is less than the previous one, but the maximum entitlement period is equal to the period during which social insurance contributions have been paid.

In case an insured employee’s child is sick:

1. In case his/her child is sick, the period of entitlement to the insurance benefit of a policyholder in a year is calculated in relation to the number of days of child care which is 20 working days at maximum if that child is under 3 years old; 15 working days at maximum if that child is aged between 3 and under 7.  

>>>With respect to those policyholders who are employees entitled to the abovementioned sickness benefits, the benefit entitlement rate is equal to 75% of the pay rate used as a basis for calculation of social insurance contribution rate in the month before resignation.

In case where an employee takes up work for the first time or has paid social insurance contributions for some period of time, and then has to suspend his/her working period to be on sick leave covered by social insurance benefits in the first month of his/her return to work, the benefit entitlement rate is equal to 75% the amount of pay used as a basis for calculation of social insurance contribution in that month.   

2. In case where both parents participate in the social insurance program, the period of benefit entitlement of either of them in connection with their child’s sickness is subject to clause 1 of Article 26 of the Law on Social Insurance.

The period of social insurance-covered leave in connection with sickness of a child of a policyholder as prescribed in this Article is calculated based on the number of working days, exclusive of public holidays, new year's holidays or weekly rest days.

a) The social insurance benefit is equal to 65% of the amount of pay used as a basis for calculation of the social insurance contribution in the month immediately before the policyholder is on leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of at least 30 years.

b) The social insurance benefit is equal to 55% of the amount of pay used as a basis for calculation of the social insurance contribution in the month immediately before the policyholder is on leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period ranging from 15 years to under 30 years.

c) The social insurance benefit is equal to 50% of the amount of pay used as a basis for calculation of the social insurance contribution in the month immediately before the policyholder is on leave if he/she has paid social insurance contributions for a period of under 15 years.

Occupational accident and disease benefits are prescribed as follows:

Entitlement rates:

- One-off insurance benefit payment: 

If a policyholder's labor capacity is reduced by 5%, he/she is entitled to the insurance benefit which is five times more than the base pay. Then, for 1% added to the previous reduction in labor capacity, he/she is entitled to the additional benefit which is a half of the base pay amount; Besides, he/she is also entitled to an allowance calculated based on the number of years during which social insurance contributions have been paid to the occupational accident and disease benefit fund.  

- Monthly benefits:

If a policyholder's labor capacity is reduced by 31%, he/she is entitled to the insurance benefit which accounts for 30% of the base pay amount. Then, for 1% added to the previous reduction in labor capacity, he/she is entitled to the additional benefit which accounts for 2% of the base pay amount; Besides, he/she is also entitled to an allowance calculated based on the number of years of payment of social insurance contributions to the occupational accident and disease benefit fund, which accounts for 0.5% of the base pay amount if his/her period of payment of social insurance contributions is not more than one year, or is increased by 0.3% of the amount of pay used as a basis for calculation of social insurance contributions paid into the fund for each year added to that period.   

Retirement benefits

As for the monthly retirement pension amount, from January 1, 2018, the monthly retirement pension amount of an employee eligible to receive the retirement pension accounts for 45% of the average pay amount in the month of payment of social insurance contribution as prescribed in Article 62 of this Law and is equivalent to the number of years of social insurance contribution payment as follows:

a) 16 years, 17 years, 18 years, 19 years or 20 years, if a male employee retires in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022 onwards, respectively;

b) 15 years if a female employee retires from 2018 onwards.

For each additional year, the monthly retirement pension amount paid the employee prescribed in point a and point b of this clause is increased by 2%, but is restricted to 75%. 

One-off benefit payment on retirement

1. If an employee’s period of payment of social insurance contributions is greater than the number of years with 75% of retirement pension entitlement, he/she is entitled to the one-off benefit entitlement payment in addition to the retirement pension when on retirement.

2. The one-off payment amount of social insurance benefit is calculated based on the number of years which is greater than the number of years with 75% of retirement pension entitlement. Each year of payment of social insurance contribution is converted into 0.5 month of the average amount of pay in the month of payment of social insurance contribution.

If the employee after leaving his/her work has not yet satisfied retirement pension entitlement requirements referred to in clause 1 of this Article or has yet to receive the one-off benefit payment under clause 6 of this Article, he/she will be allowed to retain his/her period of SI contributions.

Death benefits

Monthly death benefits:

Cases of entitlement to death benefits:

a. Those policyholders who have paid social insurance contributions for at least 15 years, but have yet to receive the one-off social insurance benefit payment;

b) These policyholders who are receiving retirement pensions;

c) Those policyholders who die from occupational accidents or diseases;

d) Those policyholders who are receiving monthly occupational accident or disease allowances with their labor capacity reduced by at least 61%. 

The monthly death allowance paid each relative accounts for 50% of the base pay rate; If a relative is not directly cared for by a caregiver, the death benefit amount accounts for 70% of the base pay rate.

Except the abovementioned case, the number of relatives entitled to monthly death benefits is not more than 04 persons; in case where at least 02 persons are dead, relatives of these dead persons are entitled to 2 times greater than the benefit amount specified in clause 1 of this Article. 

One-off death benefit payment:

 - The one-off death benefit payment to a relative of an insured employee or an employee whose period of payment of social insurance contributions is retained is calculated based on the number of years of payment of social insurance contributions. The benefit amount calculated in each year of payment of social insurance contributions is equivalent to the average amount of base pay as a basis for payment of social insurance contribution calculated in 1.5 months of social insurance contribution years preceding 2014; 02 months of social insurance contribution years following 2014 and onwards; is at least equal to the average amount of pay in the social insurance contribution month received during 3 months. The average amount of pay as a basis for calculation of the one-off death benefit payment in a social insurance contribution month is subject to regulations laid down in Article 62 of this Law.       

- The one-off death benefit payment rate applied to a relative of a dead retirement pensioner is calculated based on the period during which he/she has already received retirement pensions. If he/she dies within the first 2 months of entitlement to his/her retirement pensions, the death benefit amount will be equal to the 48-month retirement pension that he/she is currently receiving; if he/she dies after that period, his/her death benefit is reduced by the 0.5-month retirement pension amount and is equal to the 03-month retirement pension at minimum that he/she is receiving for each retirement pension month added to that period.   

>>> Reading in Vietnamese: Những nội dung cần lưu ý về BHXH với người nước ngoài