Universal health insurance is an irreversible reality in Armenia.
“Armenpress”According to the report of RA Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan, during his speech in the National Assembly, this was announced.
Universal health insurance is no longer an irreversible reality. By expanding it, it will include everyone,” said Avanesyan.
The minister emphasized that since the independence of Armenia, the people have waited and expected that medical services would be available in Armenia, but everyone promised and did not do it.
“Today, universal health insurance is a reality, and the state is fulfilling its most important commitment to take care of people’s health care, improvement and financial security. But it is important to record that this became possible only due to the legitimacy of the government, listening to the people and having the support of the people. Universal health insurance became possible only thanks to statehood and peace,” said Avanesyan.
According to the minister, the universal health insurance system best demonstrates that what the individual cannot do, the state can do. “It shows how, thanks to the taxes we pay, we get back a thousand times more value than we paid. I want to thank all our citizens, big and small entrepreneurs who work, create good and, dutifully paying their taxes, made it possible for the state to take care of its citizens like a relative when it is needed. I want to thank all the workers of the healthcare system, because it is only thanks to them that our citizens are satisfied and grateful. Today, thanks to the introduction of health insurance, we have an increase in the salaries of the average medical staff. Next, I am sure, salary revisions will continue,” Anahit Avanesyan stressed.
The minister also referred to several narratives, which, according to him, have been wrapped around us for a long time and prevented us from moving forward, and the success of the introduction of universal health insurance has made them null and void.
The first such narrative, according to the minister, is that the state is not a good manager.
“As we can see, the state is a good manager, if the government is legitimate, if it is accountable to the people, and such large projects can be implemented only and only by the state, of course, in cooperation with the private sector,” Avanesyan noted.
Another such narrative, the minister considers, is that the health care system is not ready for the introduction of universal insurance and now is not a good time for its introduction. “Years of work and investments prepared the system, we can implement all our most ambitious plans by constantly educating ourselves, and now is the time, because the people chose us for this,” he explained.
The next narrative is that the introduction of insurance will hinder the development of the health sector as an important branch of the economy.
“Today, thanks to the health insurance system, the exact opposite is happening. The sector is rapidly developing, investments, including foreign ones, have also increased in private insurance companies,” he said.
