Ali Reza and his wife, Shahnaz, have not visited their city for more than a year, as they are staying in a modest hotel in southern Tehran to treat their sick daughter.
Ali Reda, 55 years old, believes that the government’s decision, which stipulates that treatment is completely free for the three lowest income groups, will change the course of their lives, especially since they were forced to sell all their possessions to bear the expenses of treatment, as their money is about to run out.
He told Al Jazeera Net that treatment expenses are not at all proportional to inflation and salary increases, considering that treatment has become closer to a luxury item before the decision.
Treatment is free for a third of society
The Iranian government announced that it would provide free medical services to low-income groups, which are estimated at about 25 million people – out of a population of about 90 million.
The Iranian Minister of Health, Bahram Ain Allahi, said that the five lowest-income groups in society were previously covered by free insurance, and from now on, all services for patients hospitalized and in outpatient clinics for the three lowest-income groups will be free in medical centers and government hospitals as well. In addition to free insurance.
The Minister of Health added that the government will pay full health insurance premiums for people in the first three lowest income groups.
The importance of empowering insurance companies
For his part, Iranian Assistant Minister of Health Saeed Karimi explained to Al Jazeera Net that the new decision does not include all doctor visits, but rather is limited to the necessary visits decided by the family doctor, and the review must be to government centers, while the decision does not include dentistry and cosmetic medicine.
Karimi added that the decision includes residents of cities whose population does not exceed 20,000 people.
Regarding the repercussions of this decision, Karimi said that the current Iranian government is trying to achieve justice and seeks to provide health care for all classes of society, and this is a step in this path.
The Assistant Minister of Health stressed that the government project has not been completed yet and is still in the implementation phase, “Therefore it is difficult to determine the cost accurately, but we expect that it will cost the government 10 thousand billion tomans in Iran.”
Karimi also stressed the importance of supporting insurance companies in the health care system, so that they become stronger and are able to cover all treatment expenses.
Unofficial Iranian sources quote officials as saying that 70% of treatment expenses are borne by citizens, which may push the patient below the poverty line if he needs surgery or a relatively long treatment period.
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said that his country’s treatment system ranks first in the region and 15th in the world, while Bloomberg News Agency published statistics that placed the Iranian health sector in 69th place out of a total of 169 countries in the world.
2023-09-19 09:34:57
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