Armenian Prime Minister withdrew issue of free infertility treatment  from agenda of government meeting

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the implementation of a new program for the treatment of infertility  through free or preferential access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) starts. 

At the July 11 meeting of the RA Government, RA Healthcare Minister  Arsen Torosyan said that according to the available calculations,  about 700 families will be included in the program. About 85 families  are scheduled to serve annually. 250 million drams will be allocated  for the project implementation. The Minister stated that the lack of  financial resources does not allow expanding the list of  beneficiaries.  For this reason, a group of persons is established  that will be able to use this program. In particular, the  beneficiaries of the program may be, in particular, infertility  couples who have clear medical indicators (in this case, women are  25-30 years old), couples where one or both spouses are military  personnel or are equated to military personnel. The program also  includes representatives of socially vulnerable groups (with a  vulnerability score of 30 or higher), as well as couples where one  spouse has a disability (provided there are no contraindications for  a woman), parents who have lost their son during or after military  service relevant circumstances (in this case, the maximum age of a  woman is 42 years).  The treatment of families suffering from  infertility in the framework of the state order will be held in six  clinics of the republic, with which an agreement will be concluded on  insemination or IVF. At the same time, it is planned to change the  essence of the program, emphasizing not so much the implementation of  IVF for infertile families, as the provision of medical services.

Meanwhile, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan asked how these 80  families will be determined, and whether there will be corruption  risks associated with the use of relatives, friends and  acquaintances. "I have already talked about this 100 times, but again  a draft decision is submitted to the meeting, which is not fully  worked out," the head of government stated. The discontent of the  Prime Minister was also caused by the lack of clear data on the  number of beneficiaries and objective mechanisms on the basis of  which people could use the program. "If we do not have clear data on  the number of beneficiaries of the program, then why do we make this  decision?" He noted. In addition, it was completely unclear from what  considerations the beneficiaries would be included in the waiting  list. So, if there are thousands of them, then the expectation of  artificial insemination can drag on for years, as a result of which a  person may, by age criteria, no longer fall under the necessary  requirements. <How logical is it to tell a person that he is the de  jure beneficiary of the program, but not de facto? He may stand in  line for several years, and as a result he will no longer fall under  the requirements of the program. And this person will be able to say  that the Government has deceived him, " Pashinyan noted. 

He added that this decision was not ready for discussion. "Why all  these nuances should have been announced at the Government meeting?  This question is removed from the agenda," the prime minister said,  calling for all the defects to be resolved, and only then submit the  document for discussion.