The State Duma Has Stated That The Healthcare System In Russia Is Critically Underfunded
- 4.11.2026, 20:14
Russia's population will decline at a rate of 600,000 people per year.
Government funding for the Russian healthcare system is nearly three times lower than in developed countries and nearly half the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), leading to a “catastrophic” population decline. This was stated at a State Duma session by Alexei Kurinny, a member of the Health Protection Committee , as reported by The Moscow Times.
According to him, total government spending on healthcare in 2027–29 will amount to 3.6–3.7% of GDP, and this figure has remained virtually unchanged in recent years, although nominal spending amounts (in rubles) are rising. “In developed countries, this figure stands at 8–10%, and in countries comparable to us in terms of economic development, it is 5–6%,” said Kurinny.
Next year, according to his estimates, total healthcare spending across all Russian Federation budgets will increase by 6%. And this is “even lower than the projected inflation rate, although inflation will be higher this year,” said Kurinny.
According to the draft budget law, the federal government will cut healthcare spending by 3% in 2027, and a number of key federal projects will face funding cuts of tens of percent. For example, spending on the “Fight Against Cancer” project will be reduced by a factor of 12; spending on the “Healthcare Infrastructure Development” project will be cut by 30%.
Overall, the national project “Long and Active Life” (formerly the “Healthcare” national project) will lose 20% of its funding next year: it will amount to 145.9 billion rubles, compared to 181.1 billion in the 2026 budget.
Expenditures from the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund (FOMS) will increase: they will total 5.2 trillion rubles, compared to 4.8 trillion this year. As a result, however, the fund’s budget will face a record-breaking deficit of 168 billion rubles.
“Unfortunately, key indicators—such as mortality from cardiovascular and oncological diseases, and mortality among the working-age population—lag significantly behind those of developed countries. Moreover, the targets themselves have been repeatedly revised downward—as has become the tradition—and by the end of 2026, the population decline will again amount to about 600,000 people,” said Kurinny.
According to the lawmaker, high mortality rates and relatively low life expectancy in Russia are linked to the state of the healthcare system, and “the demographic situation is one of the main indicators of the state’s effectiveness.”
Rosstat, it should be recalled, classified official demographic statistics as confidential in early 2025 after they showed the country’s birth rate had fallen to its lowest level since the 1990s. According to the latest official data, Russia’s natural population decline in 2024 amounted to 596,200 people.
A year earlier, deaths exceeded births by 495,200 people; in 2022, by 594,500. In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia set a record for natural population decline in modern history—1.04 million people. According to Rosstat data, the cumulative total for 2016–24 shows that the country lost 4.7 million people as a result of deaths exceeding births.