Health Care

The quality of health care has dropped dramatically due to low pay of doctors, which prevents new doctors from being trained and encourages existing ones to move elsewhere for higher salaries.

While it still existed, the Soviet Union had one of the best health care systems in the world. It had the highest proportion of beds to population, and people were guaranteed at least a yearly checkup. Health care was also guaranteed to all people at no cost.

Health care in Russia is still free to all people since the fall of the Soviet Union. However, since that period the quality of health care has dropped dramatically. This has happened for several reasons. First is the low pay of doctors, which prevents new doctors from being trained and encourages existing ones to move elsewhere for higher salaries. Furthermore, many doctors ask for bribes, and will not administer treatment or pain medication until they are paid. Second, there is not enough equipment or modern technology to adequately diagnose and treat many illnesses that are easily curable in other countries.

Russians also tend to live an unhealthy lifestyle, with a high occurrence of obesity. The average life span of males has dropped to 59, and the population of the Russian Federation has been steadily decreasing.