Iran expands free insurance to cover 1.4 million poor families: Minister
Iran has expanded its free insurance scheme to cover some 1.4 million families living in villages and other underdeveloped regions, says the country’s social welfare minister.
Mohammad Shariatmadari said on Twitter on Monday that the number of rural and nomadic families covered by Iran’s Public Free Insurance had nearly doubled in seven years.
برای اولین بار؛ با تلاش و همراهی همکار خوبم دکتر نوبخت#پوشش_بیمه_اجتماعی رایگان همگانی برای یک میلیون و چهارصد هزار خانوار روستایی محروم از بیمه اجتماعی، محقق شد.#یک_گام_جلوتر#صندوق_بیمه_اجتماعی_کشاورزان_روستاییان_و_عشایر
— Shariatmadari Mohammad (@shariatmadari_m) September 7, 2020
More than 240,000 village households have been included in the free insurance coverage since 2017 when the current administrative government was reelected, said the official IRNA news agency.
The insurance scheme is financed by Iran’s Fund for Social Insurance of Farmers, Villagers and Nomads, where assets have reportedly increased nearly nine-fold over the past two years to reach over 1,000 trillion rials ($4 billion).
The insurance covers both social security issues as well health needs of poor people living in underdeveloped rural regions across Iran.
An increased free insurance coverage could also help create a boom in the Iranian insurance sector, especially in its health subsector which has been struggling with lower demand as a result of the economic situation caused by the US sanctions as well as the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Iran has been pushing to narrow the gap between its rural and urban regions as part of its rural development plans.
Various services have been expanded to cover tens of thousands of villages across Iran while the government keeps building out the infrastructure in the rural regions.
Nearly all villages in Iran currently have access to electricity while the country aims to reach a full penetration rate for clean water, natural gas and key communication services in its rural regions in several years time.
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