The Armenian government plans to start introducing in 2021 a system of national health insurance that should cover the country’s entire population, Health Minister Arsen Torosian said on Wednesday.
Torosian indicated that an additional income tax will be introduced for that purpose.
“In developed countries, the average income tax rate for medical insurance is 20 percent,” he told a news conference. “These are the wealthiest, most industrialized countries.”
“There are countries, for example in Eastern Europe, where it is set at 2-3 percent. We suppose that we will start with approximately the same rates,” he said.
Public access to healthcare in Armenia declined significantly following the collapse of the Soviet Union as cash-strapped governments allowed hospitals to legally charge their patients. Most Armenian hospitals were privatized in the 1990s.
Currently only state-run policlinics are required to provide medical services to the population free of charge. Healthcare, including surgeries, is also supposedly free for children aged 7 and younger. Their parents often have to make hefty informal payments to doctors, however.
Also, for the past several years the state has partly covered healthcare expenses of civil servants, schoolteachers and other public sector employees.
Armenia - Newly appointed Health Minister Arsen Torosian addresses his staff, May 15, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance promised to ensure “accessible and high-quality healthcare” in the country during the recent parliamentary election campaign. Its election manifesto said that a compulsory national insurance system will be put in place for that purpose.
Torosian, who is a senior member of My Step, announced that Pashinian’s government has started fully covering the cost of cancer surgeries performed at local hospitals. It will also finance expensive radiation therapy for around 200 cancer patients this year, he said.
In addition, the minister went on, the government will provide underage Armenians suffering from cancer with 15 types of cancer drugs for free.
The Armenian state budget for 2019 commits the government to spending 90 billion drams ($186 million) on healthcare. It envisages pay rises for 14,000 or so doctors and other medical personnel working in the state-run policlinics.