[Health insurance in the Russian Federation]

The need to reform health care in Russia became evident in the late 1980s when due to socioeconomic crisis, the government could not cover the expenses connected with this field and put the up-to-date expensive technologies into life. The introduction of the compulsory health insurance system (CHIS) is aimed at: 1) obtaining an additional financial source for health care by making the goal-oriented stable rates of deductions from the wage fund; 2) protecting the Russian Federation citizens' rights to have free medical aid of the guaranteed scope; 3) enhancing the quality of medial care delivered to the population by introducing a mechanism of movement of funds paid for a patient; 4) paying for medical care in relation to the volume and quality of the work done by simultaneously controlling the stipulated use of funds. Three-year experience of CHIS in Russia has indicated that there is a real mechanism of reformation and government regulation of health care under the conditions of transition to the market, with the interests of the general population and medical personnel in mind. Obvious legal, organizational, technological, and psychological problems and disadvantages have been found at all management levels, which are an obstacle in the way of the reforms and which whip up social tension and call for prompt decisions.