Samvel Khudoyan: You have to go and pay doctors, else you will die (video)
From March 1, 2018 85% of medicines registered in Armenia will be given by prescription. According to Samvel Khudoyan, a psychologist at the Armenian-American Health Center, this was a state business program with corruption risks, as the patient should pay the doctors as well. For socially insecure populations, this is a serious problem. "People are deprived of the right to vote and are told, you have to go and pay doctors, else you will die," he said. According to Mr. Khudoyan, large amounts of prescriptions would go to the pockets of individuals, not to the state budget. "Besides, for example, chronic patients, when they have been using the same drugs for years; there is no sense to go to a doctor to get the medicine," he said. Ruben Haytyan, Vice President of the National Association of Consumers, considered that decision as a result of pressure from international organizations. "There is no confidence in health and education systems," he said and added that there was a need for the decision, but not that day.
