Need to reform Social Insurance so that retirees can still have a decent life
On the afternoon of October 30, continuing the working program of the 10th Session, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the implementation of the state budget.
Delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan (HCMC Delegation) is interested in the issue of reforming social insurance (SI) so that retirees can still have a decent life and not fall into poverty.
According to the delegate, the reality of countries has shown that even with decades of high economic growth, it is still not possible to ensure that retirees have a decent salary to live on.
Citing the reality of some countries such as Korea and China, the delegate pointed out the reason for the prolonged low birth rate below the replacement level, the number of workers decreased, the number of the elderly increased.
This leads to the pension fund facing a situation where the number of people contributing to the fund is decreasing, the number of people receiving pensions is increasing, causing an imbalance.
"In Korea, in 2023, one in three workers will retire. Is this a problem for Vietnam? We see our country facing such a situation.
In 2000, in Vietnam, 1 in 7 people of working age retired. By 2025, 4.3 workers will have one pensioner and by 2045, 2.4 workers will have one pensioner. And by 2100, there will be 1.3 workers, one pensioner. That is, the number of workers to "receive" retirees is decreasing like in other countries in the world," said the delegate.
Therefore, the delegate recommended that before 2030, we need to have a comprehensive social insurance reform project so that retirees from now on can still have a decent standard of living and when the country is rich, they will also have a better life.
There is a roadmap to increase the retirement age before 2035
According to delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan, our biggest waste is human resources. If we increase the retirement age from the current level to 65 years old like in other countries, the number of workers will increase to more than 5 million people per year.
According to the delegate, if we increase the retirement age with a roadmap, for example within 10 years, the requirement to increase labor annually to achieve GDP of 10%/year is completely achievable.
Therefore, the delegate proposed to soon have a roadmap to increase the retirement age before 2035 to ensure that this 5 million workers can be used.
Delegate Dinh Ngoc Quy (Gia Lai Delegation) said that lessons from many countries struggling to cope with the aging population show that if solutions are not implemented in a timely manner, there will be great costs in economy, finance, healthcare, and social infrastructure, not just a shortage of human resources.
From there, the delegate suggested that the Government should soon study the types of insurance that some other countries are applying and are called by different names such as Care Insurance, Long-term Insurance, Nursing Insurance.
The delegate also proposed diversifying the types of health insurance, proposing amendments to the Law on Social Insurance and the Law on Health Insurance to respond to the rapidly approaching and rapidly approaching elderly population.
