Healthcare reform brings Russian protesters to the streets
03-Dec-14, The Christian Science Monitor
Hospital No.7 is a relatively modern multi-building complex set amid a large swath of green space in south-central Moscow. It's one of the city's busiest general hospitals, taking in about 200 new patients daily.
But under a new reform, imposed with little public notice or explanation by city government, several departments have been shut down, almost half the staff laid-off, and no one is sure what's going to happen next.
The official plan to shut down 28 (out of 204) city hospitals and fire up to 10,000 medical personnel, leaked onto the Internet in October, has triggered a wave of public outrage. In the first economically-motivated mass protests in over a decade, thousands of people demonstrated in downtown Moscow last weekend, complaining that the quality of healthcare provided by the mandatory state insurance program is deteriorating, and accessing it is becoming far more difficult.
Good care, they say, is available only through the small but growing private health sector which is unaffordable for most Muscovites. Rumors of corruption are rife, including claims that city officials plan to sell the property of closed hospitals to developers, to become hotels, shopping centers, or even private medical clinics.