Lukashenko: Belarus is the only country where healthcare has been preserved at the state level
08.06.2026
GRODNO (
BelTA) – Belarus is the only country where healthcare has been preserved at the state level. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement during a ceremony to inaugurate the Grodno Oblast Clinical Hospital on 5 June, BelTA has learned.
“A modern, world-class European complex has emerged here,” the head of state said. “This hospital looks into the future.”
“We are the only country where we have preserved healthcare at the state level,” the president stressed. He added that this unchanging stance was criticized in the past. Including in 2020 when calls were made, including by medics, to switch to insurance-financed healthcare. “Thank god, today everyone has realized what insurance healthcare is and what our healthcare that the state is responsible for is,” he pointed out.
“Back then I knew that if we had gone the way of insurance healthcare, then there would have been no healthcare,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “But you thought that insurance healthcare means that wages will be three or four times higher and that everything will be all right. We would have ruined healthcare.”
At the same time Aleksandr Lukashenko did not rule out the possibility that several decades later the current state healthcare system will have to change and many services will become available for a fee at some point. The state carries this burden now. Transplantation surgeries are one of the examples. They could cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars for foreigners while they are free for citizens of Belarus. “It will not always be like that. This is why people should take care of their own health. They shouldn’t look at foreign models. Don’t expect that [foreign specialists] will come to you and will cure you here. Or that those, who will leave the country and will cure people over there, will make money hand over fist. The places where wages are great have a different kind of costs, too,” the head of state pointed out.
The president remarked that there had been a period when doctors from Belarus had tried working abroad only to some time later realize the mistake of the decision. They are now trying to come back. “Take care of your land. No foreign country needs us. If some highly specialized and interesting position is open over there, locals will occupy it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Continuing the line of thought, the president advised everyone not only to expect aid and assistance from the state with some issues but to also count on their own strength, to undertake more responsibility, especially the responsibility for their own life and health. “You know, some people get riled up and start… I say: [look] into the mirror and answer this: what have you done in order to make things better? It is a bit tough for a president to say but it is true. This is why you can contact superiors, make demands of them, but look at yourselves, too,” Aleksandr Lukashenko recommended.
“A modern, world-class European complex has emerged here,” the head of state said. “This hospital looks into the future.”
“We are the only country where we have preserved healthcare at the state level,” the president stressed. He added that this unchanging stance was criticized in the past. Including in 2020 when calls were made, including by medics, to switch to insurance-financed healthcare. “Thank god, today everyone has realized what insurance healthcare is and what our healthcare that the state is responsible for is,” he pointed out.
“Back then I knew that if we had gone the way of insurance healthcare, then there would have been no healthcare,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “But you thought that insurance healthcare means that wages will be three or four times higher and that everything will be all right. We would have ruined healthcare.”
At the same time Aleksandr Lukashenko did not rule out the possibility that several decades later the current state healthcare system will have to change and many services will become available for a fee at some point. The state carries this burden now. Transplantation surgeries are one of the examples. They could cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars for foreigners while they are free for citizens of Belarus. “It will not always be like that. This is why people should take care of their own health. They shouldn’t look at foreign models. Don’t expect that [foreign specialists] will come to you and will cure you here. Or that those, who will leave the country and will cure people over there, will make money hand over fist. The places where wages are great have a different kind of costs, too,” the head of state pointed out.
The president remarked that there had been a period when doctors from Belarus had tried working abroad only to some time later realize the mistake of the decision. They are now trying to come back. “Take care of your land. No foreign country needs us. If some highly specialized and interesting position is open over there, locals will occupy it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Continuing the line of thought, the president advised everyone not only to expect aid and assistance from the state with some issues but to also count on their own strength, to undertake more responsibility, especially the responsibility for their own life and health. “You know, some people get riled up and start… I say: [look] into the mirror and answer this: what have you done in order to make things better? It is a bit tough for a president to say but it is true. This is why you can contact superiors, make demands of them, but look at yourselves, too,” Aleksandr Lukashenko recommended.