"It is difficult to build a capitalized business in the field of medical services on the existing purchasing power of the population in Russia today," Maxim Kravchenko, managing partner of Proxima Capital Group, said at the «Right to Health» Сongress dedicated to new approaches to regulating the healthcare system.

One of the key topics of the session is "Non-insured event. An effective financial model in healthcare and methods of its regulation", in which Maxim Kravchenko took part, focused on the need for additional investments to healthcare. According to the participants of the discussion, in addition to traditional and basic public investments for this sector, private investments can and should grow. As Maxim Kravchenko noted, there are both prerequisites and limitations for this.

"Private medicine can offer investors a fairly favorable risk-return ratio. The medical sector is very stable: a person will not save on his health, which means that the business will sustain in the face of political and economic disasters, consequently, the risks are low, while private medicine has the ability to scale, and hence the growth of profitability. Almost every major investment fund in Russia today has private medical companies in its portfolio,”Maxim Kravchenko said. "However, there are two bottlenecks limiting the development of private medicine in the country: low purchasing power and the lack of a sufficient number of qualified doctors."

According to Kravchenko, the state invested a lot in the purchase and production of medical equipment, but not enough in human capital, and the low purchasing power of the population largely explains the fact that only those Russian medical companies that operate in the premium segment are financially successful. "In the segment of polyclinic services, network clinics, everything is not so good, because it is difficult to build a capitalized business on the existing purchasing power in Russia today," Maxim Kravchenko said.

"To increase the attractiveness of the healthcare industry for private investment, it is necessary, accordingly, to increase the purchasing power of the population, to develop qualified medical personnel, and also – this is important for all sectors in Russia, not only for healthcare – to create a legal framework that allows investors to invest money in business without fear of losing it," Maxim Kravchenko concluded.

The discussion was also attended by Timofey Nizhegorodtsev, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, Guzel Ulumbekova, Head of the Higher School of Health Care Organization and Management, Alexander Bykov, Director of Healthcare Economics at R-Pharm Group, Nikolay Vlasov, Adviser to the Management Board of PJSC Promsvyazbank.

“The Right to Health” is a congress dedicated to new approaches to regulation of the healthcare system aimed at preserving and multiplying human capital as the basis of the Russian economy.