Availability of medical services as a factor of mitigation of poverty and inequality in Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic

Djoldosheva Dinara Sabatbekovna

The article provides an evaluation of accessibility of health services as a factor of mitigation of the poverty rate and inequality in the Russian Federation and in the Kyrgyz Republic. GDP and total health expenditures per capita in USD in Russia were in 8-10 times higher than in the Kyrgyz Republic. However the poverty rate and inequality difference were not high between two countries. One of the reason is features of health financing and health delivery systems. Russia is financing mainly hospital and high technological services (70,4%), and allocates only 16,2% to primary and outpatient care. The Kyrgyz Republic directs 58,7% to hospital care and 35,3% to primary and outpatient care. Such approach allowed the Kyrgyz Republic to increase nearly 3 times the accessibility of health care. This can explain in part why in Russia despite a huge surplus of GDP and total health expenditures per capita in USD the poverty rate and inequality, demographic and epidemiologic indicators have not been better than in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Keywords:The Russian Federation, the Kyrgyz Republic, economic development, poverty, inequality, health care accessibility