![\"Iran:](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Iran-100-High-Demand-Drugs-Excluded-From-Social-Insurance-Coverage.jpg\" "\\"Iran-100-High-Demand-Drugs-Excluded-From-Social-Insurance-Coverage\\"")
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By Amir Taghati<\/p>\n
While the Iranian regime has set up the most advanced and efficient private and even personal hospitals for regime leader and other state officials, the Iranian people are more and more denied of the least medical and healthcare services.<\/p>\n
It was recently announced that close to 100 highly consumed and cheap drugs would no longer be covered by any social insurance plan, meaning they would only be available at a higher price. Regime\u2019s Health Ministry officials meanwhile claim that the decision would save the country\u2019s healthcare system nearly 140 billion tomans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe excluded items include some nonprescription medicines like cold drugs, acetaminophen and antihistamines,\u201d says the CEO of Health Insurance Organization \u2018Taher Moohebati\u2019, according to regime\u2019s Health Ministry website.<\/p>\n
Although the decision to remove the drugs from insurance coverage was made last year, but due to January\u2019s nationwide protests the regime was forced to hold back and postpone the decision\u2019s implementation date until last week, July 7, 2018, when it announced that from July 11, 2018, close to 100 drugs will only be available at subsidy-free prices.<\/p>\n
State-run websites meanwhile have reacted to government\u2019s latest move, writing \u201cin its most recent decision, the government has strangely removed some highly consumed drugs from insurance coverage. This means that from now on you\u2019ll have to pay several times higher for a cold drug.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mostly used by low-income population, the OTC drugs are among highly consumed and widely used medications that until yesterday you could obtain them at cheap prices from drugstores to treat your minor cold or headache symptoms. Regime\u2019s Health Ministry officials meanwhile claim that such drugs are too excessively used to be subsidized by the government, and thus the decision to raise their prices and exclude them from insurance coverage has been aimed at reducing their unrestrained consumption.<\/p>\n
With the decision put into effect, there\u2019s been a drug shortage and increased drug prices of up to 70 percent. Besides, the decision will also seriously jeopardize and increase the cost of healthcare for low income population and society\u2019s wage earners.<\/p>\n
Pointing to its negative consequences, some physicians have warned that the decision will force many of their colleagues to prescribe drugs that would normally be their second or third choices, but the doctors tend to prescribe them anyway only because they are covered by insurance plans and the patient can afford them, something that will in turn lead to increased drug misuse cases.<\/p>\n
Yet, the other aspect of regime\u2019s anti-human decision could only be seen when we realize what type of medical services regime officials receive.<\/p>\n
Most of regime\u2019s high-ranking officials have access to a mobile medical team that\u2019s constantly located at the nearest possible point. The fully equipped medical team constantly accompanies the subject and is ready to provide his or her healthcare needs 24 hours a day throughout the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong Mr. Ahmad\u2019s nice jobs was setting up a small, modern heart hospital near Khomeini\u2019s residence,\u201d writes Hashemi Rafsanjani in his diary, \u201cthe medical team stationed at the hospital saved Khomeini\u2019s life several times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also in this regard, Mohammd-Hossein Khoshnevis, a member of Khomeini\u2019s medical team, had pointed in an interview to permanent presence of a medical team for regime\u2019s key figures, saying \u201cduring a night shift at around two o\u2019clock in the morning, the nurses monitoring Khomeini\u2019s physical conditions noticed a dangerous heart rhythm disorder. The medical team in place were immediately informed and soon arrived to do the revival.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also revealed in 2009 that a private hospital with four doctors on standby is set up in the basement of regime leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s residence, monitoring his condition 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n
As a member of Khamenei\u2019s security team who ran away from the country in 2009 for fear of a regime collapse, the source who revealed the information also pointed out that \u201ca highly equipped medical bus always accompanies Khamenei in his road trips. Likewise, there\u2019s also an advanced mobile hospital at hand during Khamenei\u2019s air travels.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story is more or less the same for regime\u2019s other key figures, so much so that having a permanent medical team and emergency unit is quite commonplace among many of regime officials and affiliates.<\/p>\n
Yet, some statesmen and their off-springs still prefer to go abroad to be fully checked up and receive the most up to date medical services despite having a 24-hour medical team at their disposal.<\/p>\n
Another aspect of this flagrant discrimination is the rise of numerous advanced specialized hospitals in Iran, offering world class high quality medical services at staggering prices. But considering the sharp devaluation of Iran\u2019s national currency, the price of services such hospitals offer are only a fraction of foreign hospitals\u2019 rates, encouraging many wealthy people in the region and the world, and even middle class European and Arabs, to travel to Iran to receive premium medical services at low prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cHundreds of thousands of medical tourists from regional countries travel to Iran every year to receive medical services,\u201d says Mohammadhaji Aghajani, head of Beheshti Medical Sciences University (former Melli University), according to State-run ISNA news agency on April 25, 2018.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Dr. Simforoush, head of Beheshti Medical Sciences University\u2019s Urology Group had said \u201cthe Iranian kidney transplant model has impressed the world!\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, manager of one such hospital says that they\u2019ve made two million dollars in the past year through medical tourism. But when it comes to Iranian people, low-income population in particular, they can\u2019t use the services such hospitals offer, no matter if they\u2019re insured or not, and have to skip a meal so they can afford their cold, burn or bruising medications, as the social security insurance has excluded such widely used drugs from its coverage, thereby offering them only as paid drugs, so it can recover its capital fast and in cash.<\/p>\n
Regime\u2019s recent decision, which is going to put more healthcare and livelihood pressure on low income population, will undoubtedly fuel the flaring furnace of people\u2019s protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Amir Taghati While the Iranian regime has set up the most advanced and efficient private and even personal hospitals for regime leader and other state officials, the Iranian people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":51742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-25045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n