The 2026 state budget, which the government of Armenia approved, includes the financial part of the comprehensive medical insurance reform, Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan told a press conference Wednesday.

“We are specifying that we will start the reform from 2026. Next, the discussions of our interdepartmental commission have been summed up, yesterday we put the already revised legislative package in the Idraft system.

The introduction of [medical] insurance [in Armenia] in our draft is specified in three-year phases, and we are starting from 2026, including the following groups of the population: Children under 18 years old will be included in the insurance system with 100% state subsidy in 2026. People over 65 years old will also be included in the insurance system from 2026. The largest amount is precisely this group of people. Next come people with disabilities aged 18 to 65. Also, people with 28 points of insecurity; this system is also changing. From 2026, the group of people—which is about 190 thousand—with a monthly income of more than 200,000 drams will also be included in the [medical] insurance system [in Armenia],” said the minister of health.

Regarding the expectations formed in Armenia’s society in this regard, Avanesyan said: “Over the past year, I have been asked, ‘When will we be included in that system?’ Responding to the demands of our working citizens, we decided that this scale will include those receiving more than 200,000 drams [monthly salary] in the insurance framework in the first phase. This is a fairly large group that we are including in the first phase.

In general, mandatory [medical] insurance [in Armenia] will apply to 1.6 million people in 2026. Only those Armenian citizens who are residents, who are 100% subsidized by the state, will be included in the comprehensive insurance system. That is, the requirement to live in Armenia for 183 days is specified in the law.”

Avanesyan touched also upon the cost of the mandatory medical insurance package in Armenia.

“Taking into account the pace of our economic development, our capacity, and the consideration that we need to launch and expand, increase the package of services in the process, we have set the framework for the first phase within 129,600 drams. It includes a preventive, early detection screening program, hospital programs, medication provision, ambulance services. These services will be clearly defined by a government decision.

We are not going to say that the [mandatory medical] insurance covers everything, except for this, except for the fact that it is usually in small print in contracts so that a person gets confused about what he or she ultimately gets. We are going to specify the opposite, specific services will be specified, and each person will see in a very clear way whether or not this service is covered by insurance.

How did we choose? We chose the illnesses with the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality, and included this burden as a priority within this package.

We will have one basic [mandatory medical insurance] package, in addition to which, ‘plus packages’ that include additional services provided by private insurance companies will continue to operate,” said the minister of health of Armenia.