Minister: Azerbaijan must take decisive measures in health insurance

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 29 /Trend, A.Akhundov/ It is time for Azerbaijan to take more decisive measures in the field of health insurance, Finance Minister Samir Sharifov told media today. "This issue depends not only on the Finance Ministry, but think it is time for more decisive measures in the field of compulsory health insurance," Sharifov said. The law 'On Medical Insurance' was adopted in 1999, but the outcome not widely developed. The medical insurance is carried out in the form of compulsory and voluntary. Compulsory medical insurance being part of the state social insurance provides a population with medical and medicinal aid to an amount corresponding to the programme of compulsory health insurance. Voluntary health insurance in addition to the established programme of compulsory health insurance provides for medical and other public services through a contract for voluntary health insurance. The insurance companies collected premiums worth 47.64 million manat (18.6 per cent of the total market volume) and payments worth 28.86 million manat (42.7 per cent) in voluntary medical insurance in January-September 2012. The official exchange rate on Oct. 29 is 0.7850 AZN/USD. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az