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The Ministry of Health has outlined a plan for implementing key tasks in the social protection and prevention of social evils sectors for 2026, directing localities to strengthen execution of social assistance policies, improve care for vulnerable groups, and enhance disaster and disease preparedness.
The Ministry of Health requests localities to promptly and fully implement monthly social allowances, monthly social pension allowances, issue health insurance cards, and other social assistance policies for social protection beneficiaries in the community in accordance with regulations. Local implementation must align with beneficiaries’ conditions and local circumstances, while continuing to implement cashless social allowances.
Localities are asked to implement the regime of fostering and care for social protection beneficiaries at social assistance facilities, including both public and non-public facilities, in accordance with regulations.
The Ministry also calls for proactive review and compilation of difficult cases in localities that are not covered by Decree No. 20/2021/ND-CP, for submission to People’s Councils at the same level. Decisions should be made to ensure these subjects receive appropriate social assistance benefits based on local conditions.
Elderly care remains a key emphasis. Localities are directed to mobilize social resources to support medical insurance cards and to eliminate temporary and dilapidated housing for the elderly. The plan also includes developing the network of elderly care facilities, nursing homes, day care centers, community activity houses, and expanding elder care models at home and in the community.
The Ministry further promotes solutions to develop the “silver economy,” linking it to local economic and social development.
The Ministry of Health instructs localities to closely monitor and regularly track developments of natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other force majeure events affecting residents’ lives. The aim is to inform and guide people to proactively prevent, respond to, and minimize harm to livelihoods.
Local budgets should allocate resources, while organizations and individuals should be mobilized to overcome consequences and ensure timely relief for residents. Localities are also asked to regularly review and consolidate information on shortages of food and essential goods among people affected by natural disasters, floods, harvest shortfalls, and other force majeure events to provide timely support.
Priority should be given to children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and other social assistance recipients. The Ministry emphasizes ensuring that no one goes hungry and no one is left homeless, including promptly visiting and encouraging affected families and implementing coordinated measures to stabilize livelihoods and support production.
Another key task is for People’s Committees at communes, wards, special zones, and social assistance facilities to survey, clean, standardize, and update data in social protection databases. This includes the database of social protection beneficiaries, the database of people with disabilities, the database of social assistance facilities, and the database of social workers.
The Ministry requires that data meet the criteria “correct, complete, clean, current, unified, shareable, synchronized, and consistent,” to support connectivity and integration with national shared databases, the national population database, and health sector databases, while simplifying administrative procedures based on data.
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