The introduction of Universal Health Insurance (UHI) in Armenia is not going to happen in 2025. On November 1, 2024, Armenian Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said in the Parliament the draft state budget of Armenia for 2025 does not contain funding for UHI introduction due to limited fiscal space
As reported by Naira Badalyan of “ArmInfo”, the introduction of Universal Health Insurance in Armenia is postponed once again and new implementation dates are unknown. Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan said:
“Unfortunately, the fiscal capacity of the Republic of Armenia at this stage does not allow us to satisfy the entire volume of funding that we requested.”
Earlier, budget for year 2024 mentioned the introduction of Universal Health Insurance, projecting about 26 billion drams (about $65 400 USD) for this purpose, of which half (18 billion drams) were to find activities necessary to introduce the Universal Health Insurance. In the current message accompanying the draft 2025 budget, the financial authorities limited themselves to one vague sentence: “In the near future, it is planned to prepare the healthcare system for the introduction of comprehensive medical insurance by implementing a number of measures aimed at improving the quality of healthcare.”
The absence of a corresponding expenditure item was pointed out to the Minister of Finance in parliament November 1, 2024, who was asked about the reason. Vahe Hovhannisyan, Minister of Finance of Armenia, confirmed there was no expenditure item in the 2025 budget to introduce Universal Health Insurance. He added that
“Funds were allocated for Universal Health Insurance in 2024, but they were not spent on this purpose, since the introduction of the system was postponed. These funds were reallocated to other programs. Appropriations for Universal Health Insurance are not planned next year due to the country’s fiscal capabilities.”
Some parliament members retorted the postponement of Universal Health Insurance while the cabinet of ministers announced full implementation by 2027. In addition, it was stated that thaving a compulsory health insurance was one of the conditions for the liberalization of the visa regime with the European Union.
Minister of Finance, in turn, reminded that draft budget for 2025 already entailed a very high level of budget deficit – at 5.5%, and new expenses would increase the deficit, or public debt, or would lead to new taxes with a reduction in budget expenditure items. Thus, Minister of Finance urged Parliament Members to consider the issue from this point of view, stating that the authorities will return to the program when they would feel system readiness.
Earlier, on February 2, 2023, the Armenian Cabinet of Ministers approved the Concept for the implementation of Universal Health Insurance proposed by the Ministry of Health, according to which the implementation was planned for 2024-2028. 2023 was considered preparatory, and 2024-2026 was considered testing phase, while full implementation was planned from 2027. According to the plan, the implementation stage of the system should have begun in July 2024.
In May 2024, Samvel Kharazyan, Advisor to the Minister of Health of Armenia, co-author of the concept of introducing the Universal Health Insurance updated that the draft Law “On Comprehensive Health Insurance” has not yet been adopted, although its draft was ready in April 2023. The delay in the adoption of the national law, said Samvel Kharazyan, was mainly related to the determination of the state treasury’s ability to fully subsidize the insurance premiums for the protected beneficiaries (children under 18, beneficiaries of social benefits, people with disabilities and persons included in the social assistance system).
In June 2024, the World Bank announced that it was ready to provide Armenia with a $110 million loan to support the Universal Health Coverage program. The World Bank loan would support the implementation of the Five Year Action (2021-2026) Plan of the Government of Armenia and would be part of the national Healthcare System Development Strategy.
