Doctor criticizes Armenia's health insurance rollout ahead of elections

An Armenian doctor has accused the government of rushing the launch of a universal health insurance system in order to secure voter loyalty ahead of the June parliamentary elections.

Speaking at a workshop organized by the AntiCor anti-corruption platform on Wednesday, Dr. Gevorg Grigoryan argued that the authorities introduced the scheme on January 1 despite it being incomplete and already causing difficulties for citizens.

“There are two main reasons for the hasty rollout of the health insurance system,” he told reporters in response to a question from Panorama.am. “First, with elections approaching, the government is trying to win voter loyalty at the expense of the state budget. Second, the government has signed an agreement with the World Bank and received a loan. Without the introduction of the system, the loan would not have been granted to the government.”