Health care

Abstract

Russian health care policy turns on a number of significant tensions between three vectors—all evolving at different speeds: first, the extent and nature of substantive state health care guarantees for Russian citizens; second, the extent or size of state versus non-state funding of health care; and, third, organisational challenges in the national health care system, including due to the advent of new health care technologies. Russia’s ability (or inability) to negotiate these tensions will determine the future health of the country’s population. Moreover, the country’s ability to reconcile the considerable and growing informality of its health care policies and practices with formal requirements and norms will determine the degree of public trust in the national health care system.