Health insurance as a tool for regulating the market of medical services

The article examines the essence of health insurance and its regulatory role in the regional aspects of reforming the healthcare industry in Russia. It has been established that the level of socio-economic development of the region is a factor that has a decisive impact on the quality of medical services. It is proved that the specifics of regional development lead to different financial opportunities and results of self-sufficiency of territorial compulsory health insurance funds. Indicators of variation in the provision of medical services for compulsory health insurance in the constituent entities of the Volga Federal District of the Russian Federation were calculated. The calculations made it possible to note that the introduction of a single per capita financial standard has significantly reduced interregional differentiation in the constituent entities of the country. The research results indicate that the state regulation of the medical services market through the introduction of medical insurance instruments has a number of positive and negative aspects. Health care reform, initially implemented in the form of decentralization of management and transfer of regulatory functions to regions in order to take into account local specifics, has significantly reduced the role of the federal center. This led to the inequality of territories and the violation of the constitutional rights of the general population to receive free medical care. At the same time, during the period of overcoming the critical situation, public administration demonstrated the ability to restore the systemic integrity of the country’s health care, which is a prerequisite for improving the regulation of the medical services market based on the optimal delineation of powers and coordination of the activities of the federal center and territorial structures.