Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan outlined in parliament his administration’s reforms in the healthcare sector and their outcomes, also addressing the introduction of the health insurance system.

The prime minister recalled that in 2018 he had stated that no person in need of medical care in Armenia should be left outside hospital doors, and noted that the government has pursued a phased reform path to achieve this goal.

Pashinyan said the health insurance system was not introduced earlier because the healthcare system was not ready for it.

“If we had introduced health insurance in 2018, the healthcare system would have collapsed,” he said in parliament during the presentation of the 2025 report of the government’s 2021-2026 action plan.

According to him, a number of fundamental reforms were first implemented, including the expansion of the state healthcare package, the introduction of a contracting mechanism, and the development of e-health services, including electronic prescriptions.

The prime minister said that although these reforms were often criticized, they were necessary steps toward laying the foundation for the insurance system.

“All those reforms were bulldozing the path toward today’s already established irreversible reality,” he said.

Pashinyan also emphasized concrete results in the sector, noting that average life expectancy has reached 78.6 years, while the healthcare budget has increased 2.6 times, or by 157%, compared to 2017.

He also presented statistics related to services provided to citizens aged 65 and older.

“In three months, we provided services worth 34 billion 110 million drams [$91.4 million USD] to 239,630 persons aged 65 and above,” he said.

According to him, between January 1 and April 14, 2026, 439 citizens received medical care worth $10,800 or more, 1,133 received services worth $5,400–$10,800, and 4,721 received services worth $2,700–$5,400.

In addition, thousands of citizens received various levels of medical services ranging from up to $150 to several hundred dollars.