Our Most Important Task in Healthcare is the Implementation of an Insurance System: Pashinyan

Our most important task in the healthcare sector is the implementation of a healthcare insurance system, and significant political will is required for its realization. This was stated today by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during his speech while presenting the government program in the National Assembly.

“Perhaps my comparison is inopportune, but the experience of implementing the property tax system allows me to say that we will be able to demonstrate political will and introduce health insurance in Armenia. Today, we are already spending enormous resources from the state budget on the healthcare sector. We can spend those resources more effectively, of course, placing some burden on the private sector,” he said.

Pashinyan also noted that serious changes have been made in the healthcare sector in recent years, particularly the expansion of the beneficiaries of urgent heart surgeries and fully covering hospital services for those under 18 through the budget.

Addressing the issue of COVID-19, he emphasized that like any government in the world, Armenia's could not achieve the desired effectiveness in fighting the pandemic. “Today, the world is realizing our prediction. With no lockdowns or measures, we cannot escape the fact that at the end of the pandemic, all countries will face approximately the same results,” he said.

Regarding pandemic services, according to the Prime Minister, a very significant investment program has been implemented at the “St. Gregory the Illuminator” Medical Center, which has taken on a heavy load of coronavirus care. “With several billion in state allocations, we have equipped the ‘St. Gregory the Illuminator’ Medical Center with state-of-the-art equipment that previously existed only in private medical centers. This gives us a tool to influence the pricing policy of healthcare services,” said Pashinyan, emphasizing that the state healthcare facility should become profitable with this investment.

The government also intends to develop the presence of next-generation linear accelerators for radiation oncology in cooperation with the private sector. “Many of our compatriots with such health issues prefer to seek treatment abroad because modern linear accelerators do not exist in Armenia.”