Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko against full transition to insurance healthcare in Belarus

MINSK, 12 March (BelTA) – Full transition to insurance healthcare in Belarus is not a good idea. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement while talking to employees of the Molodechno District Central Hospital on 12 March, BelTA has learned.

One of the hospital’s employees wondered about Aleksandr Lukashenko’s opinion regarding voluntary health insurance of individuals.

“If it was done on a mass scale, we would appreciate our good health,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. He referred to the USA as an example where dozens of millions of people have no health insurance and it costs a lot of money. The situation is different in Belarus where healthcare is free and people sometimes pay less attention to their own health. “One should mind his or her own health,” Aleksandr Lukashenko advised.

As far as health insurance is concerned, the practice is gradually gaining traction in Belarus. According to the head of state, the number of Belarusians, who opt for voluntary health insurance, has doubled over the course of five years and now exceeds 0.5 million people. Meanwhile, the Belarusian state healthcare system demonstrated its effectiveness during the pandemic period, too. The state spends heavily on it.

“We follow the same principle. And as you can see it works. Time will pass, we will evaluate and reevaluate all of this. As I often say, we don’t sort people. The way people are sorted in rich countries. Thank god, we don’t do that. Certainly, there are moral considerations and material ones involved. Like Slavs we work together to help a sick person recover,” Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out.

“People buy health insurance policies just in case. On the whole, we treat everyone for free,” he remarked. “I am in no rush to switch everyone to the so-called insurance healthcare.”

“We have to proceed gradually. The revolutionary way [of development of insurance healthcare] won’t work. It would be very painful,” Aleksandr Lukashenko is convinced. “When there is discipline and order in the country, things will work out. This is why you shouldn’t rush to break what you’ve created with your own hands. We will gradually encourage the [health insurance] practice but we are not going to radically remodel things. Not everyone has the means for it and not every enterprise can set aside money for it.”

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