Voluntary Health Insurance of Foreign Migrant Workers in Russia

• Published in: Sociologičeskaâ nauka i socialʹnaâ praktika Vol. 6; no. 3; pp. 152 - 164
• Main Author: Grigoreva, Kseniya S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS), Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology 01.10.2018
• Subjects: emergency and urgent medical care; health care; labor migration; voluntary medical insurance
• ISSN: 2308-6416; 2413-6891
• DOI: 10.19181/snsp.2018.6.3.6008

The article is devoted to the issues of voluntary health insurance for foreigners arriving in Russia for work. The changes in the situation in the Russian insurance services market for foreign workers that occurred as a result of the introduced requirement to compulsorily issue a voluntary health insurance policy for them, as well as in connection with the publication of Directive No. 3793-U of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, are analyzed. The issues of differentiation of the rescue and the emergency medical treatment, of including tuberculosis treatment and medical repatriation into the list of medical services to be paid at the cost of the voluntary health insurance policy are under review. The access of foreign workers to medical care in Russia, the attitude to foreigners in Russian medical institutions are investigated. The conclusion is drawn that the access of the foreign workers to medical services in Russia has improved in the past few years. The establishment of standard requirements to the conditions and procedure of implementation of health insurance for migrant workers allowed stabilization of the insurance services market for foreigners, stopping price dumping, and drastically reducing the circulation of fictitious and unsecured VHI policies. At the same time, the utilization of the medical services by the foreign workers through voluntary health insurance policies is still not high enough, and some significant issues of medical insurance for foreigners have not yet been settled.