It has already been over a year since we started discussing how we can make sure citizens of Armenia don’t face any problems when they go to a hospital. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during a question-and-answer session with government officials at the National Assembly today, responding to the question whether he accepts the 6% health insrance tax proposed by the Ministry of Healthcare or not.

“I must say that all government officials have differing views. Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan sent me an e-mail stating that the ministry has a certain conceptual approach that it would like to introduce for consideration. I said I supported the idea and added that it had to be stated that this wasn’t a political decision,” he stated.

Nikol Pashinyan said he is surprised by the reactions to proposals. “With our new development agenda and the new imperatives for development, we have set the objective to be open-minded, meaning that people shouldn’t react in such a way to make a person start being afraid to express his or her ideas. If someone has expressed an idea or an expert group has expressed an opinion and you think it is wrong, explain why you think it is wrong. The decisions that are made must be acceptable and substantiated.”