Vaezi: Rouhani has tried to prevent the Health Minister from resigning

Mahmoud Vaezi, the Chief of Staff to the President, confirmed the 'disagreement' between the Health Minister and the government regarding the health ministry's budget and reported on Hassan Rouhani's 'resistance' to accepting the resignation of Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, the Health Minister. Vaezi's remarks come after several members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly recently reported on the resignation of the highest official of Iran's Ministry of Health following a budget cut to the health plan. Previously, representatives had stated that Hassan Rouhani had not yet accepted the resignation of the Health Minister. On Wednesday (January 2), Vaezi said that Qazizadeh Hashemi 'has disagreements with the government regarding the health ministry's budget and has submitted his resignation to the President.' According to him, 'However, the President has so far resisted accepting his resignation because he considers Qazizadeh Hashemi a competent minister.' The President's Chief of Staff stated that 'the President's effort is to retain the Health Minister' and confirmed that the health plan budget and the management of the Ministry of Health 'require significant funding.' However, he noted that the government is facing 'very significant limitations' in closing the budget due to the 'economic war and sanctions.' Iraj Harirchi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, also stated that Qazizadeh Hashemi has not been present since he submitted his resignation to Rouhani on Tuesday (this week) after saying goodbye to his deputies at the Ministry of Health. Previously, Hossein Ali Shahriari, the head of the Health Commission of the Parliament, confirmed reports about the Health Minister's resignation following the budget cuts in the health sector and severely criticized the Planning and Budget Organization regarding the method of determining allocations, urging the government not to allow the budgeting to play with people's lives. The representative from Zahedan added: 'There are at least 50 specific diseases for which about 300 billion tomans were allocated two years ago, but in the 98 budget, only about 150 billion tomans were allocated for it.' Meanwhile, Ali Nobakht Haghighi, a member of the Health and Treatment Commission of the Parliament, believes that 'from a technical perspective, the health ministry's budget is adequately determined and no shortcomings are felt in this regard.' He stated, 'The health ministry's budget has increased by at least 10 percent compared to last year; the health ministry does not comply with the law regarding budget consumption, and the issue of the minister's resignation is also a forward escape.' Nobakht also said yesterday: 'Ali Nobakht, the head of the Health Commission of the Parliament, said that because the law is not followed in the health ministry, their spending increases. Today is not the season for running away. The Health Minister must be there and implement what they have cooked.' According to this representative, last week '35 representatives signed the impeachment of Qazizadeh Hashemi; his forward escape is for this reason.' Abdolreza Azizi, a member of the Social Commission of the Parliament, also told the Majlis that 'the non-payment of the health ministry's share from the targeted subsidy income and the non-allocation of the approved credits forced the Health Minister to resign.' According to the representative from Shirvan, 10 percent of the targeted subsidy income was supposed to be allocated to the health ministry, which would amount to 4,800 billion tomans. He added that currently, only the budget for three million insured individuals out of ten million has been paid to the health ministry. The Health Transformation Plan, which began on May 5, 2014, has three approaches: financial protection for people, creating equity in access to health services, and improving the quality of services. However, the Research Center of the Parliament in 2017, in a report criticizing the Health Transformation Plan, pointed to the 'pressure on the Social Security Organization' and reported that the health insurance policies were not health-oriented. According to this report, as a result of implementing the Health Transformation Plan, 'the treatment costs of the Social Security Organization increased by about 152 percent in 2016 compared to 2013.'