Letters to parliament request hearings on health insurance risks (video)

Doctor Gevorg Grigoryan, healthcare expert Anush Poghosyan and several other specialists gathered outside Armenia’s National Assembly today to submit letters to all parliamentary factions and the NA Speaker, requesting hearings on the gaps and risks of the comprehensive mandatory health insurance system.

Speaking to journalists, Grigoryan said the signatories are calling for a revision of the mechanism used to remunerate healthcare workers.

“We support an insurance system that genuinely solves people’s problems, but it should be financed by the state, not at the expense of healthcare workers. One group should not suffer because of another,” he said.

According to Grigoryan, since the introduction of insurance, medical workers’ salaries have declined even as workloads have increased.

“The calculation methodology has been changed by people who do not interact with patients and do not carry out the demanding work of saving lives. They have set pay levels that healthcare workers are rightly complaining about. There have been cases of salaries of 19,000, 20,000 or 50,000 drams. Who would work for that? The calculations are so unclear that it is still not evident whether these amounts represent full salaries,” he said.

He added that demand for services has surged because many citizens perceive them as free.

“People come and insist: ‘Register me, it’s free – I want an MRI, a CT scan.’ But such examinations should be prescribed. Neither the public nor healthcare workers are prepared for this system yet,” Grigoryan said.