Months-long debts and a deepening budget crisis push Iran’s retirees into a new healthcare emergency.
Ali Dehqan-Kia, head of the Tehran Social Security Retirees Association, announced that retirees’ supplemental health insurance has been suspended due to months of unpaid debts owed by the Social Security Organization to the insurer Atieh-Sazan Hafez. He said retirees can no longer use their supplemental coverage as of December 1 and should avoid private hospitals because their costs will no longer be covered.
According to Dehqan-Kia, the organization has not paid the retirees’ insurance premiums for the past eight to nine months, leaving no agreement in place with the insurer. As a result, the supplemental coverage has effectively been terminated. The Social Security Organization now plans to impose a system in which medical services are provided only through its own facilities or contracted centers, severely limiting retirees’ options.
Dehqan-Kia stressed that these centers lack the capacity, staff, and equipment to provide adequate care, and that the situation is already worsening public dissatisfaction. With the suspension in place, retirees are being told to rely exclusively on Social Security’s own clinics, which are widely criticized for overcrowding and insufficient specialists.
This crisis unfolds amid broader economic failure under the Iranian regime. Years of mismanagement have fueled rising poverty, deteriorating living standards, and chronic shortages across the healthcare system. Earlier, ILNA reported that many retirees are already abandoning treatment because they cannot afford medical expenses, while insurance providers reduce benefits, creating an increasingly dire situation.
Shortly after the news broke, Atieh-Sazan Hafez issued a statement via Tasnim News Agency, denying a halt in services. The company claimed that during the legal period of the previous contract, services continued without interruption and that electronic referrals were issued until midnight on November 20. It said its network of medical centers is ready to resume full operations as soon as an agreement with the national retirees’ association is finalized, promising that retirees will be able to continue treatment “with peace of mind.”
Dehqan-Kia, however, has attributed the current standoff to disagreements over rising medical tariffs and cost estimates. He said medication and treatment expenses have surged far beyond official forecasts and expected the authorities to account for real economic conditions when setting rates.
On October 6, the regime approved a plan for the state to pay 70 trillion tomans of its debt to the Social Security Organization. Yet ILNA later reported that even after this approval, the required bonds had not been transferred to Bank Refah, deepening concerns about further disruptions in healthcare services for workers and retirees.
Earlier, on August 27, a member of the regime’s parliament’s presidium, Reza Jabari, warned of a structural imbalance in Iran’s healthcare system. He said the government will eventually be unable to finance basic health services if current conditions continue, a warning now reflected in the unfolding crisis facing millions of retirees.
