Health Ministry to offer full financing for liver transplantation surgeries

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, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.ge.

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.