Thursday, 2 February 2023
The Government is taking steps to ensure the phased introduction of comprehensive health insurance in Armenia
The regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan.
The Governemnt approved the concept of introducing Comprehensive Health Insurance. As mentioned by the Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, in 2023, the package of services, which has already been developed, will be approved in the first stage. "Package prices will be established, they will not be calculated based on a certain percentage of people's incomes, but will have a fixed cost of services. The amount of state co-financing will be determined. From 2024, under state order financing, all our beneficiary groups will be equalized and all services provided to them will be the same, ensuring we don't have a mixed, fragmented system. In 2024, we will have a group of citizens insured with a comprehensive insurance package, and we will begin to include other people who want to join the program in the scope of voluntary insurance. In 2025, pensioners will be included by the state as another important protection group and a scope of state care, and they will also benefit from the full services of the insurance package. During these years, the inclusion of citizens in the voluntary insurance framework will continue. From 2027, we will have mandatory full insurance coverage for the entire population," said the Minister.
Tigran Khachatryan highlighted the adopted decision and singled out several important issues that will be crucial for the reform. "There are several important directions, the first of which is the gradual expansion of the range of beneficiaries of this system. That is, so far we have been providing guaranteed, free health services for a certain group of people mainly within the framework of funding from the state budget. We consider it important that within the framework of these reforms the range of services provided for all groups of beneficiaries should be uniform. The second important step is that we will expand the range of people who can become beneficiaries along with the upcoming reform phases. Our goal is that the majority of citizens of the country become beneficiaries of this system by the end of the reforms. The third important issue, which is perhaps the first in importance, is that we should reform the management system so that the quality of services is much higher than it is today. It requires important works in a number of directions," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
The Government allocated 1,412,571.9 thousand AMD to the regioanl administrations of Aragatsotn, Gegharkunik, Lori, Kotayk, Shirak, Syunik and Tavush for the implementation of subsidy programs. in 2022, 363 subsidy programs were discussed and approved. As noted by Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan, the decision envisages co-financing for 25 subsidy programs approved and mainly completed in 2021 and 2022 in 17 communities.
The Government approved the Armenian textile industry development plan and the resulting 2023-2026 ation plan, the purpose of which is to resolve the various problems in the sector, to implement reforms, as a result of which effective and sustainable development will be ensured. 10 main directions were highlighted, namely: to improve the competitiveness of workers in the textile sector, to optimize and modernize business processes, contributing to the increase of efficiency and productivity, to modernize the production facilities of the textile industry by introducing high technologies that will contribute to the creation of more complex and high added value products, to ensure and encourage representation of Armenian brands in new consumer markets, etc. Regarding the issue, Tigran Khachatryan noted that the strategy submitted for approval by the Ministry of Economy aims to increase the long-term competitiveness of the sector. "We know that there is serious global competition in this field. And if we do not pay enough attention to all the issues in a timely manner and do not make them the subject of special support from the Government, then it is possible that the challenges facing the companies operating in the sector over time will make the conditions in which they operate more difficult. Therefore, both people's capacity building, technical and technological upgrading, and making markets more accessible to our companies should continue to be the main directions that should be supported by the Government. And the result should be having more than 11,000 people involved in that sector, higher remuneration per unit of working time. It is also important especially from the point of view that we have mainly women's employment there," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
