TEHRAN –Seven more anti-cancer drugs are now on the list of rare diseases fund with health insurance covering 70 percent of the costs, an official with health insurance organization has said.

“Currently, with the inclusion of these seven drugs, a total of 90 anti-cancer drugs are covered by rare and hard-to-treat diseases fund and the health insurance is paying 70 to 95  percent of their costs,” IRIB quoted Mohammad-Esmaeil Kameli as saying.

In the Iranian year 1401 (March 2022-2023), the late President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration established a special fund to support patients suffering from rare or hard-to-treat diseases.

Services ready for cancer patients

The Health Insurance Organization is ready to provide services to patients suffering from cancer in the country, IRNA reported on December 26, 2023.

The number of health centers that have concluded contracts with the Health Insurance Organization increased by seven percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) compared with the year earlier.

More than 53,000 centers have concluded contracts with health insurance organizations so far in the current year, IRNA quoted Keivan Tajbakhsh, an official with the Organization, as saying.

Health insurance contracts have been signed with government, non-government, private, and charity centers for services.

The centers include doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies, rehabilitation centers, and all medical centers.

“We hope to witness an increase in the number of health centers that are parties to the contract with Health Insurance Organization as new forms of the contract, approved by the Supreme Council of Insurance, are announced,” Tajbakhsh said.

He stated that 13,931 pharmacies, 20,804 doctor's offices, 2,049 clinics 2,446 independent laboratories, and 4261 rehabilitation centers, both independent and affiliated with other organizations, have concluded contracts with the Health Insurance Organization.

With the support of the World Health Organization, the national cancer control program has been developed, which sets out the Ministry of Health’s roadmap up to the Iranian calendar year 1404 (March 2025-March 2026).

The purpose of the program is to reduce cancer prevalence and mortality while improving the quality of patients’ lives, which can serve as a model for other countries, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

The program includes two important documents, namely, “development of national cancer care network” and “development of cancer human resources”, which resulted in the establishment of the early diagnostic centers.

Other significant services

 Health Insurance Organization, together with the Ministry of Health, have provided important and significant services in different sectors.

Providing free insurance for low-income families, paying the medical expenses of infertile couples, providing services to the disabled, supporting patients with rare diseases, and providing services to foreign nationals are among the provided services so far, IRNA reported.

The government has adopted policies to identify uninsured people. In this regard, the Health Insurance Organization in cooperation and interaction with the Social Security Organization was assigned to identify uninsured people, who are often from the vulnerable groups of society.

Accordingly, some 90 percent of hospitalization costs and around 70 percent of outpatient treatment costs are covered by insurance.

In this regard, by allocating 50 trillion rials (about $100 million), 107 rare diseases are covered by the health insurance fund, and with the cooperation of universities, the lion’s share of treatment costs are paid by the government.

MT/MG