Kazakhstan

Access to health care in Kazakhstan has deteriorated since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Reform has been slow and, as a result, a budget crisis resulting from an attempt to maintain the unsustainable Soviet system caused the closure of many hospitals, most of which were in rural areas. Although health expenditure has since increased, coverage of the population is still inadequate. Importing medicines is hampered by a highly bureaucratic customs apparatus. This may partly explain WHO estimates that half of all imported pharmaceuticals are brought in illegally.