| Verified against primary record | |
| Out-of-pocket share (2020) | 65.2 per cent of total health spending, on data predating the mandatory insurance rollout[1] |
|---|---|
| Mandatory health insurance | Covers 100 per cent of the population; the benefits package was expanded in 2023 to 3,344 services[1] |
| Population | About 10,127,100 at the start of 2023, with 45.4 per cent in rural areas[1] |
| Noncommunicable disease burden | 90 per cent of recorded deaths and 81 per cent of years lost to disability[1] |
| Medical tourism in the WHO country report | Not mentioned; the only foreign travel described is health professionals on study visits[1] |
| Comparative health system series | Azerbaijan was initially listed among the Health Systems in Action countries and then removed by a correction[3] |
| Independently reported | |
| Numbers travelling abroad | None available; precise numbers were described as hard to come by[2] |
| Reported cost of treatment abroad | Up to 5,000 manats in Iran and about 10,000 manats in Turkey, with the wealthy going to the United States or European Union[2] |
| Stated main reason | Mistrust of the national health system, according to a surgeon at the Azerbaijani Medical University[2] |
| Stated policy ambition | The president said in 2015 that he wants Azerbaijan to attract medical tourists[2] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. No count of Azerbaijanis treated abroad and no count of foreign patients treated in Azerbaijan was located in any source, and the one report addressing outbound travel states that precise numbers are hard to come by. That report dates from 2016 and predates the insurance reform described above. No typical cost range for foreign patients in Azerbaijan is given. | |
Medical tourism in Azerbaijan runs outward, and the reason given for it is not price but trust. Azerbaijani patients paid 65.2 per cent of all health costs directly from their own pockets in 2020, among the highest shares recorded anywhere in this series, and a surgeon quoted in 2016 gave the main reason for travelling abroad as mistrust of the national health system. The president had said the year before that he wanted Azerbaijan to attract medical tourists.
What the WHO country report records
The WHO Country Office in Azerbaijan’s annual report for 2023, published in 2024 and written by Krista Kruja under the guidance of Hande Harmanci, records a population of about 10,127,100 at the start of 2023 with 45.4 per cent in rural areas. Out-of-pocket spending was 65.2 per cent of total health spending in 2020, and the report notes that this data predates the rollout of mandatory health insurance. Mandatory health insurance now covers 100 per cent of the population, and the benefits package was expanded in 2023 to 3,344 services.[1]
Noncommunicable diseases cause 90 per cent of recorded deaths and 81 per cent of years lost to disability, about a third of adults have three or more risk factors and almost two thirds have one or two, and mental health services in conflict-affected regions served over 35,000 patients. The report does not give total health spending, hospital beds, physician or nurse numbers, catastrophic health spending or unmet need, describing staff shortages and the lack of comprehensive financial protection data only qualitatively.[1]
Medical tourism, health tourism and foreign patients do not appear. The only foreign travel the report describes is health professionals going on study visits, including to Turkiye to gain practical experience in Turkish hospitals, which is professional development rather than patient movement.[1]
The juxtaposition is worth marking. Azerbaijani clinicians travel to Turkish hospitals to acquire skills, and Azerbaijani patients travel to Turkish hospitals to be treated. The report documents the first and is silent on the second.
The outbound account
A report published on 15 August 2016 by Durna Safarova for Eurasianet gives no figure for Azerbaijanis travelling abroad, stating that precise numbers are hard to come by, and records an oncologist saying patient numbers from Azerbaijan to Turkey rise every year without giving a count. It reports treatment costs of up to 5,000 manats, over 3,000 United States dollars, in Iran and about 10,000 manats, roughly 6,000 dollars, in Turkey, with the wealthy going to the United States or European Union. None of those figures is attributed to a named source.[2]
On causes it quotes Adil Geybulla, a surgeon and professor at the Azerbaijani Medical University, saying the main reason is mistrust of the national health system, and cites publicised malpractice cases and corruption including informal payments linked to low medical salaries, with a nurse earning about 150 dollars a month. Geybulla put former Soviet average state healthcare spending at 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product against Azerbaijan’s 4.5 per cent. Nasib Guliev, a health ministry official, defended state-funded healthcare quality, said the healthcare budget was up eleven times since the 1990s with 600 government medical institutions built or renovated over the preceding decade, and blamed media and social media for exaggerating problems.[2]
The report also records that President Ilham Aliyev said in 2015 that he wants Azerbaijan to attract medical tourists, and names two deaths following procedures, an 87-year-old woman after a botched amputation and a four-year-old child after a tonsillectomy, as cases that had been publicised.[2]
Two cautions apply. The report is journalism and contains contested claims from parties on both sides of an argument about Azerbaijani healthcare quality, which is why it sits in the independently reported band and why the ministry’s rebuttal is given alongside the criticism. And it dates from 2016, before the mandatory insurance scheme described above, so its account of financing may no longer hold even if its account of trust does.
Removed from the comparison
Azerbaijan is the one country in this series documented as having been taken out of the standard comparative health system assessment. WHO Europe and the European Observatory launched their Health Systems in Action insight series on 28 January 2025 for countries in the WHO European Region outside the European Union, built on a common template to support cross-country comparison and updated every two years. The launch page originally described the series as covering 17 countries, and a correction reduced that to 15 by removing Andorra and Azerbaijan.[3]
No reason for the removal is given on the page, and none is inferred here. Its practical effect is that Azerbaijan has no profile in the series that provides the comparable baseline used throughout this site for Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Israel, Serbia and North Macedonia, which is why this entry relies on a country office annual report instead.
Limits of the evidence
No count of Azerbaijanis treated abroad, no money figure for treatment abroad, no count of foreign patients treated in Azerbaijan and no accreditation register was located. The WHO report gives no beds, physicians, nurses or catastrophic spending figures. The outbound account is a decade old, journalistic, and largely unattributed on its cost figures. Whether the mandatory insurance scheme and the expanded benefits package have changed the out-of-pocket share since 2020 could not be established, and the report itself flags that its figure predates the rollout. Nothing has been estimated.
See also
- Outbound medical tourism, the direction Azerbaijan is described in
- Medical tourism and universal health coverage, and a 65.2 per cent out-of-pocket share
- Medical tourism in Georgia, a neighbour with a profile in the series Azerbaijan left
- Medical tourism and health workforce migration, including clinician study visits abroad
- Medical tourism statistics, where precise numbers are hard to come by
References
- WHO Regional Office for Europe. Annual report 2023: WHO Country Office in Azerbaijan. Copenhagen, 2024, document WHO/EURO:2024-10547-50319-75914, written by Krista Kruja under the guidance of Hande Harmanci with technical guidance from Emilia Aragon de Leon and H. Ibrahim Durak. Verified against primary record: the report was opened and the population of about 10,127,100 at the start of 2023 with 45.4 per cent rural, the out-of-pocket share of 65.2 per cent of total health spending in 2020 with the note that the data predate the mandatory health insurance rollout, the mandatory health insurance coverage of 100 per cent of the population and the 2023 expansion of the benefits package to 3,344 services, the finding that noncommunicable diseases cause 90 per cent of recorded deaths and 81 per cent of years lost to disability with about a third of adults having three or more risk factors and almost two thirds one or two, the mental health services in conflict-affected regions serving over 35,000 patients, the absence of figures for total health spending, hospital beds, physicians, nurses, catastrophic health spending and unmet need, the qualitative description of staff shortages and of the lack of comprehensive financial protection data, the absence of any reference to medical tourism, health tourism, foreign or international patients or citizens treated abroad, and the description of health professional study visits to Turkiye to gain practical experience in Turkish hospitals as the only foreign travel covered were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Safarova, D. Azerbaijan: Growing number of citizens heading abroad for medical care. Eurasianet, 15 August 2016. Independently reported: the report was opened and its statement that precise numbers are hard to come by with no figure given for citizens travelling abroad, the oncologist Hamdi Kocer’s statement that patient numbers from Azerbaijan to Turkey rise every year without a count, the unattributed cost figures of up to 5,000 manats or over USD 3,000 in Iran and about 10,000 manats or roughly USD 6,000 in Turkey with the wealthy going to the United States or European Union, the statement by Adil Geybulla, surgeon and professor at the Azerbaijani Medical University, that the main reason is mistrust of the national health system, the references to publicised malpractice cases and to corruption including informal payments linked to low medical salaries with a nurse earning about USD 150 a month, Geybulla’s comparison of former Soviet average state healthcare spending at 5.9 per cent of GDP against Azerbaijan’s 4.5 per cent, the statements by health ministry official Nasib Guliev defending state-funded healthcare quality, citing a healthcare budget up eleven times since the 1990s and 600 government medical institutions built or renovated over the past decade, and blaming media and social media for exaggerating problems, the reporter’s unattributed account of healthcare spending falling about 4 per cent over the preceding year because of a budget crunch from lower energy prices, the record that President Ilham Aliyev said in 2015 he wants Azerbaijan to attract medical tourists, and the two publicised deaths following procedures were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- WHO Regional Office for Europe. WHO Europe and European Observatory launch Health Systems in Action insights for non-EU countries. 28 January 2025. Verified against primary record: the page was opened and the identity and producers of the Health Systems in Action insight series, the fact that the page originally described the series as covering 17 countries and that a correction reduced this to 15 by removing Andorra and Azerbaijan, the named countries remaining in the series, the use of a common template to support cross-country comparison, the two-yearly update cycle, and the absence of any stated reason for the removal were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: the outbound account is journalism reporting a contested argument, so the health ministry’s rebuttal is given alongside the criticism of the system rather than only the criticism, and its unattributed cost figures are identified as unattributed. No reason is offered for Azerbaijan’s removal from the comparative series, because the page gives none. No count of Azerbaijani patients abroad appears, because the only source addressing the question says such numbers are not available. Nothing has been estimated.