The Georgian Ministry of Health will fully finance liver transplantation surgeries, increasing the state support from partial coverage, the Georgian Government Administration announced on Monday.
The change removes patients’ co-payment for liver transplantations, with the Ministry covering the full ₾120,000 ($46,069) cost of the procedure. The increase follows on the 2019 raising of funding from ₾60,000 ($23,034) to ₾ 70,000 ($26,873), when the share of patients’ co-payments stood at ₾50,000 ($19,195).
In addition, liver, heart or kidney transplantations are now used to classify patients as having “significant disability”, in a change that came into force in January.
The decision was made at today’s Government meeting, which also discussed increasing financial assistance for socially vulnerable children under 16 from ₾150 to ₾200 starting on July 1.
Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili said about 232,000 children would receive the increased assistance.
He said ₾70 million ($27mln) would be added to this year’s budget, with ₾200 per month paid in assistance to beneficiaries. The budget of the programme will reach ₾500 million ($192mln) this year, the Minister also noted.