]]>Armenians struggle for health care and medicines
Private financing constitutes about half of total health expenditures in Armenia and most of that comes directly out of the consumer’s pocket. In the current economic downturn, fewer and fewer people can afford it. Monika Mkhitaryan and Onnik Krikorian report.
In the Communist era, Armenia enjoyed one of the best health-care systems of all the Soviet republics, delivering comprehensive care on a centralized basis. Since then the system has fragmented along partially free-market lines and is today failing the majority of the people it is supposed to serve. Skewed towards expensive hospital interventions that swallow up more than 50% of the national health budget, the Armenian health system falters at the local community level and is often totally absent from rural areas.
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I just don’t know how the situation for H.C. can be fixed. Health care requires resources and Armenia simply does not have them. The Cuban experience is probably the best model to adapt for resource-poor societies like Armenia – it’s not the best health care but it’s the best health care for the amount of money spent. Instead, after the independence they tried to adopt the American health care model; the worst model on the face of this Earth. They hoped to stamp out corruption by privately delivered care but it has not worked
It seems like whatever issues I see in the country, the root cause is corruption. ]]>
t know whether that has been improved for this yearâ€s election, but somehow I think itâ€s doubtful: <a href="http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2803" rel="nofollow">http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2803</a>
So without an electoral voice, and shuttered away, the sick and disabled are too often simply forgotten. Except perhaps when a journalist comes round and tries to make the invisible visible—and thatâ€s a big thing, not a little one! Because when they are visible, then just perhaps some change is possible, but if they are invisible, nothing ever will change. Real change, though, comes with an attitudinal shift in society that sees “irregular†people as valuable commodities, not disposable ones. Iâ€m not sure how that is to be achieved in the former Soviet states, but I wish that those who have the power and means will start working on it.
]]>A few cases in point: On a visit to Moscow some time back, I was struck by the absence of anyone in a wheelchair, and also by the utter impossibility of getting anywhere in one. The Moscow underground is impenetrable for anyone with an ambulatory disability; the underground crossings for multilane streets are stairway only; very, very few buildings have any wheelchair access, and many are without elevators. As for other disabilities, a story from Russia Today documents a blind air passenger who was denied a seat simply for his blindness: http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-04-29/Blind_air_passenger_sees_victory.html?fullstory
In Armenia last year, a report in Armenia Now documented that less than one percent of voting precincts were accessible to the disabled—I don’t know whether that has been improved for this year’s election, but somehow I think it’s doubtful: http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=2803
So without an electoral voice, and shuttered away, the sick and disabled are too often simply forgotten. Except perhaps when a journalist comes round and tries to make the invisible visible—and that’s a big thing, not a little one! Because when they are visible, then just perhaps some change is possible, but if they are invisible, nothing ever will change. Real change, though, comes with an attitudinal shift in society that sees “irregular†people as valuable commodities, not disposable ones. I’m not sure how that is to be achieved in the former Soviet states, but I wish that those who have the power and means will start working on it. ]]>