Russia's national insurance fund lacks $7.9 billion to pay country's doctors

The budget of Russia's Obligatory Medical Insurance Fund is about 500 billion rubles (approximately $7.9 billion) short to increase the salaries of the country's health workers to the level stipulated in Vladimir Putin's May decrees of 2012, reported newspaper Vedomosti on Friday.

The country plans to readjust the salaries of its doctors for inflation by 71 billion rubles (approximately $1.1 billion) in 2017, 196.6 billion rubles (approximately $3.2 billion) in 2018, and 219.5 billion rubles (approximately $ 3.5 billion) in 2019.

The Fund in question, wrote Vedomosti, is the only national fund with a yet unbalanced budget. Several options are being considered as sources of funding, the newspaper reported, though the most likely will be Russia's federal budget.

Putin's 2012 May decrees stipulated that in 2017 the salary of doctors should reach 180 percent of the average in their respective regions.

Compulsory health insurance contributions 5.1 percent to doctors' total salaries.

In recent years, there have been numerous reports that the government was considering introducing obligatory contributions for health insurance from Russia's unemployed citizens. Corresponding bills have been brought before the Duma, but, so far, none have received government backing.