Azerbaijan, Baku, 2 February / Trend corr. U.Ismaylova / Introduction of free of charge medical service in Azerbaijani state medical centres from 1 February will be an additional impulse for development of voluntary medical insurance, Jamil Malikov, chairman of one of the biggest MBASK insurance company, stated.
Oktai Shiraliyev, the Health Minister of Azerbaijan, issued an order to turn all medical centres to free of charge medical service from 1 February 2008. According to the independent expert on insurance, the turn to free of charge medical service deprives medical centres, financed from state budget, the rights to sign agreements with insurance companies on medical insurance. "State medical centres cannot render the services to population that rendered by private centres," the expert said. For example, the price for ultrasonic scanning service in state medical centres is AZN 4 or 6 and AZN 20 in -private centres.
Minimum salary is AZN 60 and average - AZN 214 in Azerbaijan.