RUSSIAN REPORT - HEALTH-CARE IN MOSCOW

In the Russian Federation privatisation is affecting the health care sector as much as it is industry and commerce. That the general public support the transfer of state clinics to the private sector is a mark of their dissatisfaction with the old state run system. Doctors too see better opportunities to practise good medicine and be paid better for doing so. In Moscow the health department has set up a commission to license all clinics providing treatment, which should ensure standards of safety, training, and equipment. The Russian Federation is also trying to establish a medical insurance system to cover its citizens for health care, but in Moscow and elsewhere its implementation has been delayed by arguments and bureaucracy. In the meantime the health of Muscovites remains poor, with a high incidence of birth defects, and illnesses among the young.