Reports of new co-payments for children's specialist care raise questions in Armenia

Reports that parents are being asked to pay co-payments for children's specialist medical consultations have sparked questions over whether the change reflects a government policy or an individual hospital's decision.

Writing on Facebook on Saturday, Lilit Nurijanyan revealed that she was told by Vardanants Medical Center that specialist consultations for children would now require a co-payment.

According to her post, parents who previously could book a state-funded appointment directly with a pediatric specialist within days must now first see a pediatrician to obtain a referral before booking a specialist appointment, which she said could take another 10 days because of waiting lists. She added that families are also required to pay a 3,000-dram co-payment.

"I couldn't find any information about such a decision," Nurijanyan wrote, questioning whether the measure had been introduced by Vardanants Medical Center or by the government.

In a separate Facebook post, Samvel Karabekyan said he had anticipated that the government's universal health insurance program would be scaled back, arguing that neither the state budget nor the country's healthcare infrastructure was prepared to support it.

Karabekyan said he booked an appointment with a specialist on June 22 for a June 26 consultation and was initially told that a 25% co-payment had been introduced on June 18. By the time of his appointment, he said, the co-payment had risen to 50%, although he was allowed to pay the lower rate because he had booked before the increase.

Panorama.am will seek comment from Armenia's Ministry of Health and Vardanants Medical Center on the reported changes.