80% of People Cannot Afford Private Hospitals

One day after the final results of the elections on February 25, Nejatollah Ebrahimiann, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, made unprecedented criticisms towards Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, and the method of reviewing and disqualifying candidates in this year's elections in an exclusive interview with the newspaper Etemad. He confirmed the involvement of the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC and the 'Network of Observers,' and regarding the reason for his resignation from the spokesperson position of this council, he stated: 'I want to be my own spokesperson.' Ebrahimiann referred to the twenty days given to the Guardian Council to address the complaints of candidates objecting to their disqualifications as twenty 'bitter' days that caused 'afterlife concerns' for him, saying: 'This was the first time the council faced this number of protests. It was somewhat surprising. Thus, handling those twenty days was a bitter memory for me. I have sweet memories too, but these twenty days created afterlife concerns for me. Time was very short, and you had to deal with six thousand cases.' This legal member of the Guardian Council emphasized that he is 'not satisfied with my work in the qualification process' and stated that he has 'serious differences of opinion with the secretary of the Guardian Council.' He also stressed that 'calling candidates English is unethical,' telling the Etemad newspaper: 'If both sides argue this way, what will happen? They will conclude that half of this group is English. It is very bad; it means that England has so much power in Iran that despite the Guardian Council and the Ministry of Interior, half of the candidates come out as English? I call this nothing but unethical behavior.' The newspaper Shahrvand reported, quoting Iraj Harirchi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, that '80% of people cannot afford to visit private hospitals, 15% of people can only use private hospital services with the help of supplementary insurance, and only 5% benefit from these services without financial issues.' The newspaper Kayhan published a chart on its front page stating that the share of conservatives in parliamentary seats is 48%, reformists 30%, independents 17%, and supporters of the government or 'moderates' only 5%. Despite the fact that the total non-conservative seats in Kayhan's chart is 53%, the newspaper stated that 'the results of the elections on February 25 indicate the continuation of conservative victories' and emphasized that 'conservatives in total, both directly elected and second-round candidates to the tenth parliament, are 161, while reformists are 101.' Meanwhile, the newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, reported that Ismail Kowsari and Alireza Zakani, 'two prominent figures of the conservative coalition,' after their defeat in the Tehran elections, said: 'We submit to the votes of the people.' This newspaper wrote: 'Despite all these obstacles and pressures, the Islamic Republic has become a symbol of democracy worldwide that can serve as a good model for those claiming democracy globally.' The newspaper Qanoon, however, published photos of prominent conservative figures who lost, including Gholamali Haddad Adel and Morteza Aghatehrani, in the open session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on Tuesday, with the headline 'Regret of the Departed and Joy of the Survivors,' stating that in this session, 'there was no longer any news of all the uproar of the conservatives. No one spoke in the name of the people. The podiums were silent until the ballot boxes could speak. The remaining conservatives smiled in front of the cameras, but whenever they were alone, they sank into silence and regret.' On the other side of the Assembly, 'there was a scene of joy and happiness among the winners of February 25, and where Ali Motahari was not allowed to speak, they now lined up to take selfies and keepsakes with him.' Saman Saberian in the newspaper Qanoon pointed out that 'the last serious alignment of the representatives of the ninth parliament against each other was revealed in the nuclear deal issue,' writing that in Tuesday's session, 'surprisingly, the most supporters of the JCPOA were among the winning faction of the elections on Friday,' but 'did the departed truly fall victim to the JCPOA? It is still too early to conclude, and we must wait and see.' Mostafa Izadi, a political activist, in a note in the newspaper Shargh raised the question 'Who holds the majority in the tenth parliament?' and referred to the insistence of media close to conservatives to attribute the winners of the elections to their faction, writing: 'We have not forgotten that after Dr. Rouhani's victory in June 2013, conservative media apparently considered themselves the winners of the elections' and even 'regularly reported news and analysis claiming that with Hassan Rouhani's victory, conservatives won,' but after Rouhani insisted on his slogans that were close to the reformists' slogans, hardliners retreated and 'gradually began to oppose the President and took extreme positions against him.' The editorial writer of the newspaper Shargh pointed out that 'now that the tenth parliamentary elections have been held and the results announced, the same scenario of June 2013 is being employed in advertising and information in this section,' writing: 'If a few figures associated with the steadfastness faction have managed to enter the tenth parliament in some distant and nearby counties, they can no longer create the conditions of the ninth parliament,' because 'they are so few that they do not count against the moderate figures who have entered the parliament, and now 'these reformists and moderates supported by the people have managed to attract a significant number of rational and fair conservatives; they hold the majority in parliament.' The newspaper Ebtekar welcomed the announcement of the final results of the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections in Tehran with the title '30+15' and graphically showed that only one candidate, namely Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, made it to the Assembly of Experts from the electoral list of reformists and government supporters from Tehran. Sadegh Zibakalam, in a note in the newspaper Arman titled 'February 25 is Bigger than June 2,' wrote: 'In June 2, conservatives were surprised because they never thought that the candidate at that time would be elected with 20 million votes in 1997, but the elections on February 25 are more important than the June 2 elections because the conservatives did everything they could to prevent reformists and government supporters from entering parliament, yet this incredible victory, where all 30 candidates on the reformists' list in Tehran entered parliament and the people's list of Experts, with the exception of one person, also made it to parliament, was achieved.' The newspaper Aftab Yazd dedicated its front page to Hashemi Rafsanjani, reporting with the headline 'Hashemi Breaks Record' that he entered the Assembly of Experts with 'two million, 301 thousand, and 492 votes,' which 'is considered a record in the history of these elections.' The newspaper Sharq reported on the different news that emerged on the seventh of February regarding the voting of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karroubi, quoting Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, stating: 'Two of those who were under house arrest managed to cast their votes, one of whom could not do so because it was close to the end of the time.' The report titled 'Melting Childhood Dreams' and photos published in the Tuesday issue of the newspaper Jahan San'at about 'child labor of Afghan children in glass-making workshops' around Tehran were reported by Shida Maleki, a journalist for Jahan San'at, stating: 'Afghan children in glass-making workshops outside Tehran seem to have gone to forced labor camps. Therefore, it is forced work that if they avoid it and do not comply, they will no longer even have bread to bite.' The newspaper Iran, close to the government, reported, quoting Saeed Sohrabpour, the deputy of the National Elite Foundation, about the 'return of 100 elites from universities in the US and Europe after the JCPOA,' stating: 'These individuals are the first group that came to stay and be absorbed in the post-JCPOA conditions, and undoubtedly will have a very positive effect on others who intend to return.' The newspaper Shahrvand reported, quoting Iraj Harirchi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, that '80% of people cannot afford to visit private hospitals, 15% of people can only use private hospital services with the help of supplementary insurance, and only 5% benefit from these services without financial issues.' This newspaper also referred to the criticism of the Court of Audit, the oversight arm of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, regarding the performance of the Ministry of Health, stating that the Court of Audit report shows that 19.5 billion tomans of the budget for the Health Transformation Plan in the central headquarters of the Ministry of Health was spent on 'education, advertising, contracts with individuals, and missions inside and outside' and also for 'purchasing various gifts, administrative expenses, and buying 13 luxury cars,' which 'indicates violations of relevant laws and regulations.' However, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health stated that according to the approved 'targeted subsidy budget' in May 2014, the Ministry of Health is allowed to spend '1% of the credits of the subject of paragraph (a) of this resolution for the promotion, management, and monitoring of the health system transformation plan; that is, the amount is 48 billion tomans.'