Kidney transplant is now free in Russia

Starting in 2026, kidney transplants will be part of the basic state guarantee program and will be included in mandatory medical insurance. Kidney transplants will be offered free of charge in Russia starting this year, according to Sergei Gauthier, director of the Shumakov National Research Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs and chief transplant specialist of the Russian Ministry of Health, who announced this on Monday. "Starting in 2026, kidney transplantation will be part of the basic state guarantee program and will be included in mandatory medical insurance", he declared during a press conference.

"In this way, regions that practice kidney transplants and have a certain number of patients who need this treatment will not have to limit themselves in terms of the number of transplants, as was the case until now," he detailed.

Highlighting the importance of the accessibility of this type of surgery, the specialist recalled that, for example, the number of liver transplants in children continues to increase: in 2025, 114 procedures were performed. Since these operations are performed free of charge, they are accessible to all Russian citizens, which leads to an increase in the provision of this type of assistance.

"And I can state that the issue of the national need to treat children who need a liver transplant is completely resolved in Russia," he concluded.

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Previously, the Ministry of Health reported that the list of types of high-tech medical assistance provided free of charge had been expanded with 15 new procedures. Among them are photodynamic therapy for bladder cancer or esophageal cancer; transurethral resection; laser coagulation of the fundus in navigation mode with multimodal visualization; laparoscopic longitudinal resection of the stomach; pancreatic islet cell transplantation.