The vast majority of Russians (81.6%) use paid healthcare services. Of these, 34.6% reported that they began using paid healthcare services more frequently in the last year or two. 28.9 percent use loans to cover treatment expenses. These are the results of a survey conducted by the online financial platform Webbankir (available from socialbites.ca).
29.2% of respondents use the services of paid doctors regularly, and 52.4% use them occasionally. And only 18.4% visit doctors only under compulsory health insurance programs. In the past year or two, 50.5% of respondents visited paid clinics as before; 14.9% of participants visited paid clinics less often.
Only 6.7 percent of those who borrow money for treatment borrow regularly, while the remaining 22.2 percent resort to loans and borrowing occasionally. At the same time, almost the same number of people (23.9%) admit that they will apply for a loan to cover doctor or medication expenses in the future.
“How would you rate the quality of free healthcare services in the last 2-3 years?” Opinions of respondents were divided. 37.3% noted changes for the better, but 32.6%, on the contrary, believe that the quality has worsened. The remaining 30.1% think it remains at the same level.
The main problem with public health insurance (you could choose several answer options) was that the vast majority of respondents thought it was difficult to get an appointment with the right doctor and waited too long for an appointment. This was reported by 60.9% of respondents.
48.2% complained that necessary services were not provided free of charge. Other reasons for criticism included the lack of the necessary specialized specialists in free medical institutions (39.6% of votes), low qualifications of available specialists (32.5%) and long queues in offices (36.2%). At the same time, only 17.7% of the respondents stated that there is not a sufficient level of comfort in free medical institutions.
1,800 people from across Russia participated in the survey, which was conducted in May 2024.
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