The most horrific thing government figures show is that Russians “are beginning to die at younger ages.” According to the health ministry, Russia has seen an upsurge of death among men and women aged 35 to 44; and a major reason for that, Mishina says, is that the remaining hospitals focus on the diseases of the elderly than on those of working-age adults.
The biggest problem, however, is the lack of access to medical care. People are dying because there is no longer any ambulance service, medical point or hospital. One piece of evidence of this is that today “the level of mortality in rural areas is 13 percent higher than in the cities.”
The government’s health care optimization program is to blame for this. The regime hides the figures, but according to the Alliance of Doctors, between 2002 and 2017, the number of hospitals was reduced by 5,000 and the number of polyclinics by 1,000. By all accounts, the rate of closures is increasing even as death rates are going up.
Instead of spending the seven percent of GDP on health care that the World Health Organization recommends, Anastasiya Vasiliyev of the Alliance continues, Russia is currently spending only 3.6 percent. “Budget moneys are going for football, for Syria for God knows what but not for the development of accessible medical help.”
And the situation appears likely to get worse not better. Specialists say that “if the authorities continue to close hospitals at the current rates, by 2021-2022, the number of medical institutions in the country will fall to 3,000, that is to the level of the Russian Empire in 1913”
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/putins-healthcare-optimization-behind.html
Russian links as well.
The Soviet system with clinics and high schools at every village is not sustainable. Nothing stops people from moving from places with poor infrastructure for better places.
I think some time ago we discussed it in a topic regarding Russian road infractrusture. I think I explained why a region the size of Texas sparsely housing third the population of Austin can’t have the same road system as Texas.
The same principle applies to health care and education.
The Soviet system with clinics and high schools at every village is not sustainable. Nothing stops people from moving from places with poor infrastructure for better places.
I think some time ago we discussed it in a topic regarding Russian road infractrusture. I think I explained why a region the size of Texas sparsely housing third the population of Austin can’t have the same road system as Texas.
The same principle applies to health care and education.