Health insurances do not afford coverage for prescribed medicines anymore

With the recent sanctions against the country and skyrocketing  market inflation health insurance companies have problems with reimbursing  prescribed medicines. 

Reported by Tasnim News Agency Ahmad Ariayei Nezhad , a member of the Health Commission of the   Parliament of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced that insurance companies pay pharmacies according to old contracts in which the price of drugs is about one third of the current rates.

He seriously warned that if insurance firms do not receive enough premiums/governmental source of money they will soon go bankrupt.  

Source: http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news 
News code: 334650 (In Farsi) 
Accessed: July 27, 2013 

My comment:  Health insurance companies in Iran for the most part receive their monetary input from the government. Only a fraction of the money come from premiums. Pharmacies have two main sources  of monetary input for prescribed drugs : Purchaser's out of pocket money (either co-payment or  entire payment), and reimbursements mae by the insurance companies. Recently, many people have to pay hundreds of dollars out of their pocket to buy expensive medicines they need to treat specialized conditions such as various cancers and multiple sclerosis. Lately, US government removed the ban from exporting  life-saving drugs to Iran. The sanctions have created an alarming  problem for Iranians seeking for a variety kinds of medical treatments.

(see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/13/iran-lifesaving-drugs-international-sanctions) 

ISNA: 80 Percent of Patients in Iran Ask for Complementary Curing

"FROM OTHER WEBSITES":

"ISNA - Tehran
Service: Health

Tehran, Feb.19 (ISNA)-Experts' researches of Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) shows that 35 percent of patients affected by cancer use various methods of complementary curing.

"35 percent of patients affected by cancer use complementary curing methods that includes 81 percent supplication and 9 percent energy curing," said one of ACERC researchers.

According to the researches, 80 percent of patients ask physicians for complementary curing and 90 percent of them are satisfied by this method.

Among those who have used this method, 38 percent has used one curing method and 11 percent of them have used two methods of complementary method.

Complementary method consists of a collection of behaviors and believes that are used by patients for prevention and curing the disease and also betterment of health level.

End Item"

5 cancers get free treatment

The Minister of Health , Dr. Bagher Lankarani, stated that breast cancer, prostate cancer, blood and lymphatic malignancies, and colon cancer will no longer pose any financial charges on people with these conditions. " Last year we allocated 75 billion Toman (roughly 75 million dollars) to the treatment of these malignancies. We continue this year with 50 billion Toman" he iterated.

My comment:
1.There has been a long debate in the country if cancers should be financially treated as long lasting disabling ill conditions such as chronic renal failure and thalssemia. The latter illnesses are called "bimari haye khas" which means 'exceptional diseases' and receive huge governmental subsidies. Patients with 'execeptional diseases" geneally utilize healthcare for these illnesses free of charge.
2. According to the literature stomach cancer ranks first among all type of cancers in Iran and I have no idea why this cancer is not included in the 'free treatment plan for cancers'.

Source: Gooya news quoted from ISNA news agency , http://news.gooya.com/technology/archives/084296.php, Feb 24, 2009