MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The compulsory medical insurance (CMI) system in Russia may face a challenge associated with the so-called "silver tsunami" - population ageing, First Deputy Minister of Health Vladimir Zelensky said at the 14th All-Russia Congress of Patients.

"The CMI system will most probably face in the coming decade an unprecedentedly tough challenge partly caused by factor called sometimes the 'silver tsunami.' This is population ageing. Preventive activities result in identifying much more diseases exactly proactively, and in the long run we can indeed face a certain problem of resources in the compulsory medical insurance system, if we merely make indexation every year, continuing doing all the same that we are doing now," he said.

The number of applications for medical aid will be "steadily on the rise," Zelensky noted. "Certain problems" can occur therefore during the ten coming years, he noted, adding that population ageing is a global challenge.