page_title: Healthcare in Russia
section_title: Recent developments
hierarchical_section_title: Healthcare in Russia / History / Recent developments
caption_attribution_description: English: Far Eastern Federal University Medical Center
context_page_description: Healthcare in Russia is provided by the state through the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund, and regulated through the Ministry of Health. The Constitution of the Russian Federation has provided all citizens the right to free healthcare since 1996. In 2008, 621,000 doctors and 1.3 million nurses were employed in Russian healthcare. The number of doctors per 10,000 people was 43.8, but only 12.1 in rural areas. The number of general practitioners as a share of the total number of doctors was 1.26 percent. There are about 9.3 beds per thousand population—nearly double the OECD average.
  Expenditure on healthcare was 6.5% of Gross Domestic Product, US$957 per person in 2013. About 48% comes from government sources which primarily come from medical insurance deductions from salaries. About 5% of the population, mostly in major cities, have voluntary health insurance.
  The total population of Russia in 2016 was 146.8 million. Among this population, the number of employed individuals reached 72.3 million, involved in the 99 main types of productive and nonproductive activities.
context_section_description: Starting 2000, there was significant growth in spending for public healthcare and in 2006 it exceed the pre-1991 level in real terms. Also life expectancy increased from 1991–93 levels, infant mortality rate dropped from 18.1 in 1995 to 8.4 in 2008. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a large-scale health care reform in 2011 and pledged to allocate more than 300 billion rubles ($10 billion) in the next few years to improve health care in the country. He also said that obligatory medical insurance tax paid by companies for compulsory medical insurance will increase from current 3.1% to 5.1% starting from 2011.
  In May 2012 Putin signed the May Decrees which included a plan to double the wages of healthcare staff by 2018 and gradual privatisation of state health services. In November 2014 the wage rises in Moscow led to the closure of 15 hospitals and 7,000 redundancies.
  In 2011, Moscow's government launched a major project known as UMIAS as part of its electronic healthcare initiative. UMIAS stands for Integrated Medical Information and Analytical System of Moscow. The aim of the project is to make healthcare more convenient and accessible for Muscovites.
  The private health insurance market, known in Russian as voluntary health insurance (Russian: добровольное медицинское страхование, ДМС) to distinguish it from state-sponsored Mandatory Medical Insurance, has experienced sustained levels of growth, owing to dissatisfaction with the level of services provided by state hospitals. It was introduced in October 1992. Perceived advantages of private healthcare include access to modern medical equipment and shorter waiting lists for specialist treatment. Private health insurance is most common in the larger cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg, as income levels in most of Russia are still too low to generate a significant level of demand.
  Revenues for the leading private medical institutions in the country reached €1 billion by 2014, with double-digit levels of growth in the previous years. As a result of the financial crisis in Russia, the proportion of companies offering health insurance fell from 36% to 32% in 2016. The number of people covered by a voluntary healthcare policy in Moscow was 3.1 million in 2014, or 20.8% of the population.
  For the most part, policies are funded by employers, though insurance can also be purchased individually. Another important market for insurers are immigrant workers, who are required to purchase health insurance to obtain work permits. The average yearly cost of an employer-sponsored scheme ranged from 30,000 to 40,000 rubles ($530 - $700) in 2016, while prices for individuals were about 30% higher. Critical conditions, such as cancer or heart disease, are often excluded from entry-level policies.
  The Russian health insurance market is oriented towards large companies, with corporate clients accounting for 90% of all the policies. Small and medium-sized enterprises are far less likely to provide healthcare. Some companies choose to offer health insurance only to selected categories of employees.
  Most of the individuals who buy health insurance are related to people covered by employer-sponsored schemes, with the rest accounting for less than 2% of all policies. As companies cut back on their healthcare policies, employees in some cases resort to buying them individually.
  The largest private healthcare provider by revenue is Medsi, whose main shareholder is the Sistema conglomerate. Foreign healthcare providers with a presence in Russia include Fresenius, which has a network of dialysis centers in the country. Fertility and maternity clinics are an important element of the Russian private healthcare network. The Mother and Child network of clinics accounts for 9% of all IVF treatment cycles in the country.
  Leading providers of healthcare insurance in Russia included Sogaz, Allianz, RESO-Garantia, AlfaStrakhovanie as well as the formerly state-owned Rosgosstrakh and Ingosstrakh. RESO-Garantia is unusual among large insurance companies in that individual customers account for 40
caption: Far Eastern Federal University Medical Center
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