Thousands of Workers Gather to Protest Health Insurance Consolidation Plan

Thousands of workers formed a human chain around the Social Security Organization building to express their opposition to the health insurance consolidation plan. According to ILNA, the Iranian Labor News Agency, about five thousand workers held a protest on Friday, November 29, demanding that the government 'guarantee the financial and administrative independence of all sections of the Social Security Organization based on the law.' This gathering coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Labor Law's approval in Iran and concluded with several speeches and the issuance of a resolution. The main demand of the protesters was the enforcement of the law and opposition to pressures from the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education to merge the Social Security Organization's healthcare sector into the health transformation plan. Alireza Mohajoub, Secretary-General of the Workers' House and head of the Labor Faction in Parliament, attended the protest and stated, 'We are here to support the rights enshrined in the Labor Law and the property of workers.' Mohajoub added, 'We are absolutely against the merger, and those who support this plan should know that the workers are their counterparts, and the working community will stand against them.' Hassan Sadeghi, head of the Union of Veteran Workers, also declared at the gathering that 'the working community will not tolerate the humiliation of merging the Social Security Organization with other bankrupt insurance funds.' Sadeghi further stated, 'The claim of resource consolidation is nonsense, and the officials of the Ministry of Health do not have the ability to manage this organization and its resources.' He then addressed the Minister of Health, saying, 'The merger of the Social Security Organization's resources with other bankrupt insurances to secure healthcare resources indicates your mismanagement and has caused the health ship to run aground today.' According to him, 'The current Minister of Health's mismanagement has led to 13 trillion tomans of national resources going into the pockets of specialized doctors.' After the speeches from these two officials, the final resolution of the gathering was read, in which workers demanded the enforcement of the Labor Law and the preservation of Social Security's independence. In their resolution, workers stated, 'Today, our main message regarding the Labor Law is that, O government and O respected parliament, take care of the workers, restore the lost job security through legal reforms.' The resolution also mentioned that 'the Minister of Health wants to cover the deficit of his wrong policies at the expense of workers and insured individuals.' One of the points in the workers' resolution warned that 'the working community will not allow any changes that lead to a reduction of their rights.' In point five of this resolution, it stated, 'The Social Security Organization and all its components are inseparable, and healthcare resources will remain within the Social Security Organization. We warn those who think they can create unwelcome guests for Social Security under various titles that they will face severe opposition from the working community and insured individuals.' The issue of merging the healthcare sector of the Social Security Organization into the Health Insurance Organization has drawn criticism from Social Security Organization managers and a group of workers in Iran. In May of this year, a group of workers protested against the Minister of Health during the International Workers' Day march in Tehran, explicitly expressing their opposition to this merger. Last year, the parliamentary leadership temporarily removed the consideration of the plan to merge the healthcare resources of the Social Security Organization into the Health Insurance Organization from its agenda. Protesters believe that implementing this plan will further reduce the services provided by Social Security to active and retired workers.