Armenia’s Cabinet approves draft for 2027 health-insurance expansion

Armenia’s Cabinet approved draft health-insurance amendments that would set payment and eligibility rules for the January 1, 2027 expansion. Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said an estimated 350,000 Armenian citizens earning up to AMD 200,000 a month would join, according to an October 29 account by Armenpress.

The insurance system launched on January 1, 2026. Its next phase, beginning January 1, 2027, is already stipulated by law; the Cabinet’s latest decision approves draft amendments rather than enacting their provisions.

In an earlier interview with Azatutyun, Avanesyan described workers earning more than AMD 200,000 monthly as the premium-paying group in the first phase. State-insured groups included children under 18 and people aged 65 and over.

How lower-paid workers’ premiums would be shared

For workers earning up to AMD 200,000 monthly, Avanesyan proposed dividing the AMD 10,800 monthly premium—the payment for insurance coverage—among three payers.

Avanesyan said employer contributions were intended to support the living standards and ability to work of employees earning less than AMD 200,000. While explaining the employee contribution, she also pointed to the January 2026 reduction in stamp duty to AMD 1,000 for employees earning up to AMD 1 million; those employees had previously paid more than AMD 1,000.

Conflicting accounts of the subsidy for higher-paid workers

Armenpress gives conflicting explanations for workers earning more than AMD 200,000 and no more than AMD 500,000 monthly. One passage attributes to Avanesyan a continuation of the AMD 6,000 state subsidy in 2027. A later quotation says the opposite: the subsidy applies in 2026, but workers would use a social-credit mechanism the following year and would no longer receive that subsidy.

The account also gives the employee’s remaining payment as AMD 4,400. Subtracting a subsidy of AMD 6,000 from a premium of AMD 10,800 leaves AMD 4,800—the balance Avanesyan used in her earlier interview.

In that interview, Avanesyan said the 2026 subsidy for workers who were not social-package beneficiaries was social-credit money paid monthly during 2026 rather than in 2027. Whether these workers would retain a direct subsidy in 2027 or use a replacement mechanism—and how its eligibility, payment and reimbursement procedures would work—remains unresolved.

Employees could pay to insure dependents

Avanesyan said the proposed arrangements would allow employed people to voluntarily insure dependent family members from January 1, 2027, in response to requests from citizens. The employee would pay each dependent’s premium.

Platform-taxi drivers would face two eligibility tests

Avanesyan said drivers providing taxi services through electronic platforms could join from January 2027 if they had a two-year registration history on those platforms and their total 2026 turnover, calculated as a monthly amount, exceeded the minimum wage.

She said the thresholds reflected the fact that taxi drivers do not always work regularly. The aim was to ensure stability while allowing drivers to benefit from insurance, she said.

Other groups listed for the 2027 expansion

The Universal Health Insurance Fund’s October 12, 2026 update listed further groups for inclusion in 2027, beyond lower-paid employees, people related to insured individuals and taxi drivers:

• People receiving rent, interest, dividends or royalties.
• People working under civil-law contracts.
• Individual entrepreneurs and notaries with annual gross income of up to AMD 2.4 million.
• Individuals farming in communities designated as affected under the law.

The next phase required by law is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2027. The contribution and eligibility changes approved by the Cabinet remain draft amendments.