
ArmInfo. It's possible that the age limit for senior citizens included in the mandatory health insurance system will be lowered to 63, but this won't happen before 2027. This category of citizens will be covered by a free health insurance system. This was announced by RA Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan at a meeting of the Health Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on December 12, when she presented amendments to the law "On Mandatory Health Insurance" and a package of related laws for the second reading.
According to the minister, several proposals were submitted for the second reading, including from the opposition "Armenia" faction, whose representatives propose lowering the age limit to 63 and also including students in the list of individuals eligible for free medical care. Avanesyan emphasized that these proposals are relevant, but since the 2026 state budget has been approved, they will be taken into account when discussing the 2027 budget. Furthermore, the age limit for students will be capped at 26. Another change, the minister noted, concerns the parents of fallen soldiers, who will be included in the 2026 program as a separate group.
Avanesyan also reported that a six-month period will be applied to employers required to submit reports, during which reporting forms will be finalized based on monitoring results. The minister noted that a new system is being introduced, the application of which could lead to new questions and problems, which will require some legislative changes. The package will come into force the day after its signing, and the first month for calculating insurance payments will be November. The first month for payments will be January 2026, or more precisely, until January 20. The insurance package will be activated on January 1, 2026. As a reminder, starting next year, the compulsory medical insurance system will include children under 18, individuals aged 65 and older, disabled persons aged 18 to 65, and members of socially vulnerable families. The state will fully cover the health insurance policies of these categories of citizens. Citizens with a monthly income of over 200,000 drams will pay for their own insurance. Overall, the first phase is expected to reach 1.7 million beneficiaries (citizens of the Republic of Armenia who have resided in the Republic of Armenia for more than 183 days). The base cost of an insurance policy in 2026 will be 129,600 drams (10,800 drams per month).
However, since the amount of payments to the Zinapah Fund will change, beneficiaries will no longer have to pay the specified additional 10,800 drams monthly. Instead of the current 5,500 drams paid to the Zinapah military insurance fund (for citizens receiving salaries between 200,000 and 1 million drams), beneficiaries will pay 1,000 drams, with the remaining 4,500 drams going toward health insurance. This amount will be based on the citizen's December salary for the previous year (for inclusion in the system). It should be noted that the draft state budget for 2026 allocates 127 billion drams for subsidies under the universal insurance system in 2026.
The total budget of the Ministry of Health will increase by 44 billion 313 million drams next year, reaching 210 billion 911 million drams.