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Soviet Union [USSR] HEALTH CARE
The Soviet system of socialized medicine, introduced during the
Stalin era, emphasized "quantitative" expansion. The system was
driven by three basic underlying principles: provision by
government health institutions of readily available and free,
qualified medical care to all citizens; an emphasis on the
prevention of illness; and the related goal of guaranteeing a
healthy labor force for the nation's economy. Indeed, the
individual citizen's health was viewed not only as a personal
matter "but as part of the national wealth."
In the mid-1980s, the government operated a huge network of
neighborhood and work site clinics to provide readily accessible
primary care and large hospitals and polyclinic complexes for
diagnosis and treatment of more complicated illnesses and for
surgery. Health care facilities included numerous women's
consultation centers and pediatric clinics, emergency ambulance
services, and sanatoriums and rest homes for extended and shortterm therapy and relaxation. Psychiatric care remained the most
outdated and abuse-ridden area of the country's medical system.
The mid-1980s were marked by growing concern on the part of
officials and the public over the serious decline in the country's
health and the low quality of medical services available to the
general populace. In addition to Gorbachev's war against
alcoholism, which was seen as a principal contributing factor in
increased male mortality rates, reforms in the 1980s called for
eliminating overbureaucratization of medical services, improving
medical training and salaries, expanding fee-for-service care, and
significantly increasing funding to improve the quality of health
care nationwide.
Data as of May 1989
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