Insufficient funds are standing in the way of drug addiction treatment programs, says the president of Iran Health Insurance Organization (IHIO). To adequately address the issue $140 million would be required, while the funds approved for this purpose in the coming year is only $10 million.
‘’Since a long time, the Expediency Council, health ministry, and the IHIO have been trying to take substantive action for the treatment of addicts, but unfortunately it never came to fruition due to the existing legal lacunae,” Anooshiravan Mohseni told the Majlis website ICANA.
Initial Steps
Mohseni said some initial steps have been taken on the issue of addiction recovery. Tariffs have been announced by the government and “we are trying to launch a medical protocol for all provinces so that the entire treatment costs will be covered by insurance,’’ he said. He emphasized that the funds are inadequate even to ‘’run the programs halfway through the year.’’
The organization will do its best to increase funding. ‘’We should target 700,000 drug addicts for treatment at an average cost of $200 for each, as the only way forward to get more funds,’’ he added.
