Employers will  be possibly obliged to pay for  medical insurance of  employee

ArmInfo. Employers will possibly pay for  medical insurance of employee in Armenia. This was stated by the Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Arsen Torosyan during the Facebook press conference on ''Azatutyun"/RFL. At the same time, as the minister pointed out, everything will depend on the chosen model of introducing health insurance.

According to the Minister, today he can not name the term of the introduction of the system, but will indicate a transitional path. According to various options currently being discussed by those responsible for the sector, it is expected that universal health insurance will come into force only after a sufficient number of Armenian citizens have an appropriate policy provided at the expense of the state. And then, only after the state has ascertained the "efficiency" of the system, it will be implemented for all.

At the same time, as Arsen Torosyan stressed, he would refrain from calling the system "compulsory". It is better, as he pointed out, to use the term "total, universal" or "comprehensive medical insurance", since it will presuppose not the obligation of citizens and their duty, but the guaranteed right to receive quality medical care at the first necessity.

In addition, according to the Healthcare Minister, for today, a project is being developed, according to which employers will pay for medical examination of employees. "If some employers try to compensate these costs at the expense of the employees, this will be a violation of the working relations." Such a decision will be appealed, "Torosyan said.

To note, on May 17 responding to the question of ArmInfo, the newly appointed Minister of Health of Armenia Arsen Torosyan expressed doubts that even by 2020 it will be possible to introduce the mandatory health insurance system in Armenia. According to him, there is still a lot to do for the gradual implementation of the compalsory health insurance. First, as he pointed out, the social package should cover the most unsecured segments of the population - 612,000 people, to which families of servicemen should further join. Only later, on the basis of the results of these studies, it is possible to decide on the introduction of compulsory system. But, in addition to the very process of implementing the compulsory system, the minister believes, it is necessary to think about ensuring the proper quality of medical care so that the citizens of the country know what they are paying for.

Meanwhile, it was previously reported that from the second half of 2018 the social package will cover the most unsecured segments of the population, and then, after one year, all the rest. It was reported that according to preliminary expert estimates, the policy of compulsory medical insurance for working citizens of Armenia, who are not civil servants and are not on the list of the most needy citizens of the RA in the social program "Paros", will cost 6 thousand drams every month. However, the issue with non-working citizens, as well as pensioners and children remained open, as the budget is not able to assume additional burdens. Meanwhile, the process of step-by-step introduction of the mandatory health insurance system started in Armenia on October 1, 2017, and civil servants became the beneficiaries of the first stage of the social package.