YEREVAN—In an interview with the Armenian Weekly, Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosyan discussed his Ministry’s priorities in the Pashinyan government’s first term. While praising his predecessor’s successes in reforming primary care, maternity and child care as well as international cooperation, the Minister says there is still much to be done.
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The WHO data/charts you posted in this article do not necessarily explain why cancer is so prevalent in Armenia. I am wondering if you know of any serious study explaining why.
Keep going sir I am most impressed with what you have already achieved and wish you every success especially in the area of smoking …the scourge of Armenia
First questions that cross my mind are :
-How much will it cost yearly?
-How much the gvt intend to get from the workers, considering that most of them are poor, and the majority very cloose to poverty line.
If those evident questions were not asked to the minister because he was probably unable to answer them, then this is just another PR ops from a government that is very consistent in delivering empty promises, never corroborated by figures or action plan.
Estonia and South Korea, compared to Armenia, have high salaries, low unemployment rate and a higher number of workers vs non workers. Whatever worked there may not be applicable in Armenia.
As the article (and accompanying video interview) points out: there are no definite answers to those questions yet because this is only an idea in its infancy at the moment. The minister says that it will take at least another year to come up with a comprehensive plan.
In the interview, the minister does say that the poorest segments of society will likely continue to have state sponsored healthcare and won’t need to contribute to the fund.
The Estonian average salary is only about 90% higher than Armenia’s, while they have a similar worker – to – non worker ratio. Somehow they’ve figured it out.
Hope that helps!
If its only an idea in its infancy, then lets agree that the title of this article is at best misleading and this will not come any time soon, specially if they still have to figure out how, without shrinking the state budget of course.
The employment to population ratio in Estonia is much higher, 61% vs 48%. Its a big difference when it comes to demography and statistical base.
If the salaries are “only about 90% higher”, lets reduce yours by “only” 90%. Annual nominal wages average abt 16k USD in Estonia while barely making 4k in Armenia… Not mentionning that EU contribute to 800m usd per year to their state budget.
Considering that the minister, in charge for a year now, is unable to estimate even roughly the cost of such measure, it is consistent with what we have seen so far: a government very prompt to make fancy announcements, but regularly failing to explain how they will make it.