INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS AND MECHANISMS OF ANTIALIASING SOCIAL INEQUALITY OF CONSUMERS OF MEDICAL CARE IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY

The article deals with the practical approaches to reducing the degree of medical care consumption differentiation in modern Russian society. The relevance of the research is caused by the necessity to construct an accessible and effectiveness healthcare field in Russia. The novelty of the work is expressed in indication of contradiction between explicit functions and real interests of agents in the healthcare system. A special attention is given to the consequences of government participation reduction in the healthcare. It is argued that, in general, the government and consumers' interests in the field of medical support are the same. However, society still expects support and care from government, but the government is gradually reducing its participation. The author focuses on theoretical and methodological backgrounds of sociological understanding of social differences in medical care consumption and defines the measures of actors’ behavioral strategies positivisation in the context of transformation of the healthcare institution in Russia today. Antialiasing of health care consumption differentiation depends on operation of regulatory, interiorizationing and reproducing institutional mechanisms. The article shows that institutional mechanism is a system of coordination and streamlining of the interests of different agents through the development and establishment of formal and informal social norms in the healthcare sphere with subsequent interiorization and social reproduction. Special attention is given to the analysis of behavioral and structural dimensions of inequality in access to medical care. It is argued that the strengthening of state control is a necessary step in the sphere of healthcare, but motivation to modernization of the healthcare system in the budget and insurance model is extremely weak. Finally, the author comes to the conclusion on possibility of antialiasing the social inequality of medical care consumers by means of specification guarantees of free medical care and responsibility of agents, reduction of patients’ direct payments, integrating of treatment process, social dialogue and infosocialization of agents.