"Zhoghovurd" daily writes:
"The topic of universal health insurance seems to be in such a sad state that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan himself started dealing with it. Yesterday, Minister Avanesyan reported this topic to the head of the executive.
Let's remind that for years this sector was coordinated by Deputy Minister Lena Nanushyan, who failed the insurance investment system so much that it seems that they started to put some ideas together at the last moment and get a program that caused a stir.
RA Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan announced that the start of the first phase of their controversial compulsory insurance program will begin in 2026. This means that 536,988 citizens aged 65 and over (according to the dispute committee) and about 755,814 residents under the age of 18 (according to the dispute committee) should use insurance. It seems like a wonderful project, our children and old people will be healthy. but an important subtlety is hidden here.
It turns out that until now pensioners and disabled people aged 65 and over, as well as children, are already using the state order service. However, Anahit Avanesyan and the coordinating deputy minister of the insurance program Lena Nanushyan decided to change the name of this state order to universal insurance.
In a conversation with "Zhoghovurd" daily, the president of the Right to Health NGO, Anush Poghosyan, as an expert, explained that as a result of this cunning decision of the ministry, all working citizens of our country who receive a salary of 200,000 drams or more suffer (besides, it remains unclear whether the said 200,000 drams refers to the net salary or the total amount including taxes). Workers must pay 129,000 drams for insurance annually.
It turns out that the current state order system will work from 2026 at the expense of 200,000 or more receiving citizens. And what will those working citizens, who from 2026 have to make a mandatory payment for insurance every month, in the amount of 10,750 drams, get? According to the Ministry, no new health services have been developed for them.
Once a year, they can undergo "light examinations" and laboratory tests, exactly the services that the same citizens receive today in primary medical circles, in polyclinics.
What happens? 129,000 AMD paid annually by citizens receiving 200,000 or more AMD. at the expense of mandatory payments, a health budget is created, which replaces the state order, but Nanushyan and Avanesyan present it as the reform of the century - health insurance.
Meanwhile, in fact, a "new type of tax" is added for working citizens."
