The budget deficit of Russian regions reached 1.5 trillion rubles last year
Anatoly Artamonov, chairman of the Federation Council budget committee, has called for optimizing the network of medical facilities in the regions due to a lack of funds. He argues that it is more efficient to close underutilized hospitals and redirect patients to larger centers. This was reported by The Moscow Times citing Medvestnik, according to the portal PromPolitInform.
A representative of the Federation Council, Anatoly Artamonov, emphasized the need to review the feasibility of maintaining the current hospital network. He explained that financial resources in the medical system are limited, and therefore, the operating costs of small or low-capacity medical institutions require a thorough analysis.
As Artamonov notes, many medical facilities are currently not utilized by patients, and existing tariffs are insufficient even to cover basic utility expenses, including heating. The senator suggests transferring patients to larger specialized hospitals, where specialized doctors are available and patient volume is higher.
Regional finance crisis
Similar proposals were made by the senator back in April 2026, when he urged governors to audit infrastructure, labeling the operations of many rural departments as “a sham.” Attempts to reduce medical spending are explained by the disastrous state of local budgets, which recorded a record deficit of 1.5 trillion rubles last year.
The situation continues to deteriorate: in the first half of 2026, local treasuries faced another deficit of 134.2 billion rubles. The largest issues with meeting budget obligations are observed in the Vologda region, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, as well as the Kemerovo and Irkutsk regions, where deficit figures reached between 26% and 30.8% of their own revenues.
Cuts to state programs
Amidst the allocation of nearly 40% of federal funds to the war, the Russian government has halved the funding for key medical projects this year, down to 181.14 billion rubles. The primary healthcare modernization program suffered significant losses, with its budget cut by 52% to 59.1 billion rubles as of September.
Funding for oncology programs, intended for purchasing medical equipment and drugs, has also been cut by more than two-thirds, from 148.46 billion to 44.9 billion rubles. Furthermore, spending on the development of federal medical centers was reduced by 38%, and funding for ambulance services was cut by 27%.
Plans for the coming year provide for further cuts to “healthcare” expenditures in the federal budget. According to the draft law submitted to the State Duma, the industry’s funding is set to decrease by an additional 59 billion rubles, totaling 1.818 trillion rubles.
Illustrative photo: NVO / CC BY-SA 3.0
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