OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2009. The scheduled seminar on the healthcare reform and medical aid organization issues, of the seminar series regularly held in the Higher School of Economics with ROSNO’s organizational support since 2008, focused on discussing healthcare system financing issues. The participants have reviewed the experience gained by France in this field and discussed possibilities to use such experience in Russia’s environment. Among the participants of the event were the leading Russian and French experts, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

The opening speeches were given by Mr. Sergey Vladimirovich Shishkin, pro-rector of the Higher School of Economics, and Ms. Sofie Gene Dilyotas, representative of the French embassy in Russia.

The expertise accumulated by the French colleagues was also presented by Mr. Lorane Abere, head of the Social Security and Medical Insurance Department of the Ministry of Healthcare and Sports of France, Mr. Jean-Philippe Jushet, General Secretary of the French National Federation for Mutual Social Insurance, and Mr. Frank Dryuen, President of CADRIS Group providing consulting services in healthcare and social insurance.

Among the Russian participants of the event were representatives of the RF Presidential Administration, RF Public Chamber, RF Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, and over 70 experts from various sectors: representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific medical community, practical healthcare, economic scientists, insurers, and representatives of public associations.

The seminar participants have discussed major aspects, goals and prospects for financing of the French healthcare system, compared the issues related to funding of the state medical aid guarantees in Russia and France, and the methods used to resolve such issues.

During the discussion of the reports produced at the seminar, Ms. Larisa Popovich, First Deputy CEO/COO of OJSC ROSNO-MS, noted: "In the environment where our sector is insufficiently funded and where there are constitutional restrictions regarding co-payments by population, the introduction of voluntary medical insurance complementary to OMI would enable substantial improvements in the efficiency of the social security sector and promote better quality of medical services. In addition, the French expertise and certain findings of the Russian medical insurance community may be quite successfully applied in the new model of obligatory medical insurance system currently being developed by the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development. It occurs that a closer cooperation of the RF Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development with insurance community will enable more successful implementation of planned reforms in healthcare and medical insurance".