Armenians Struggle for Health Care and Medicines

Faced with unemployment and lower remittances in the current global economic slowdown, Armenians face a vicious health care cycle. Since the country’s independence in 1991, the government has created numerous healthcare programs which generally succeeded in providing for the health needs of its people. About half of the total expenditure on health is financed through the private sector, of which 84 percent comes directly from the individual. But the global economic downturn has made health care no longer affordable as hundreds of thousands could fall below the poverty line due to layoffs and diminishing remittances from abroad. This possibility has led people to rely on self medication rather than buying the more expensive prescribed medication. Lack of government funding in the current economic crisis has also led to reduced land cultivation which has in turn led to poor nutrition, especially in rural areas. Underfed Armenians will inevitably continue to see their health deteriorate unless something is done to turn things around. As a solution, the government is seeking an overhaul of the current system: a solution that paradoxically imitates the west, the system that got the Armenians into the mess in the first place, thanks to the global financial crisis. – Yale Global