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Expert talks on mandatory health insurance system in Azerbaijan

Business Materials 27 November 2017 20:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 27

By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:

Azerbaijan should work over an increase in the funding for mandatory health insurance system, Andrei Tretyak, head of the social protection department at Expertise France agency, told Trend Nov. 27.

Expertise France is the main partner of Azerbaijan within the twinning project entitled "Support to the implementation of the mandatory health insurance system in Azerbaijan".

Tretyak added that the data on the pilot project for the introduction of mandatory health insurance system in Azerbaijan show that the idea itself has been well worked out.

"We do not have all the data on the pilot project as we took part only at the stage of its preparation,” he said. “But the available data shows that the idea itself has been well worked out. The main problem today is an increase in funding, which is impossible without insurance premiums.”

Tretyak said that a system of social contributions can become one of the possible options for increasing the financing for mandatory health insurance system.

"I think that we should connect the social contributions and mandatory health insurance system,” he said. “Today people pay social contributions to receive pensions in the future, but they will receive pensions in 30-40 years. Nobody knows what will happen in 40 years, so no one wants to pay social contributions.”

“People prefer to invest in apartments and lands,” he said. “It is a weak link in the social protection system. But if we make a single contribution that will cover both pension and health insurance, then people will have access to free medicine through this contribution.

The expert stressed that the ongoing reform of health insurance system is a project designed for a long-term perspective.

"The results will be achieved in a few years only in case of mutual trust between the population and the country,” he said.

Azerbaijan has been implementing a pilot project on mandatory health insurance system since late 2016. Currently, the pilot project covers the country’s Mingachevir city and Yevlakh district.

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