Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC, with the publication of a report referring to a 35% increase in medical service tariffs, described this cost increase as the main reason for the decline in patients’ visits to private centers.

The news agency said, “With the jump in treatment costs, patients can no longer afford private-sector tariff rates,” and therefore they are forced to go to government centers.

Tasnim also reported the inadequacy of the services provided by government medical centers and wrote: these centers “now, under the weight of ever-increasing referrals, are under pressure more than at any time else.”

Nader Tokali, the head of Iran University of Medical Sciences, has also announced that in Khordad alone, compared with the same period last year, visits to government medical centers increased by 45%.

He noted that this increase is not unrelated to the rise in private-sector tariffs and the decrease in people’s economic capacity; because patients “in order to receive the same service in the private sector are forced to pay 10 to 20 times more in cost.”