Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2025

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Double burden of vulnerability for refugees: conceptualization and policy solutions for financial protection in Iran
Saeed Shahabi1, Manal Etemadi2,3, Maryam Hedayati4
1Health Policy Research Center, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Introduction:
Iran is host to one of the world's largest and longest-standing refugee populations. Although Iran has initiated a basic health insurance scheme for refugees throughout the country since September 2015, the population coverage of this scheme is very low, and various factors have caused a significant percentage of refugees to still lack insurance coverage and often face financial hardships when receiving health services. In response, this study aimed to understand barriers to insurance coverage among refugees in Iran and propose effective policies that can address persistent gaps in financial protection.
Methods:
This qualitative study was conducted in two phases. First, a review of policy documents and interviews with participants were conducted to investigate the common barriers and facilitators of effective insurance coverage for refugees in Iran. Then, a systems thinking approach was applied to visualize the common variables and interactions on the path to achieving financial protection for refugees.
Results:
Findings showed that various factors, such as (1) household-based premium for refugees, (2) considering a waiting time to be eligible for insurance benefits, (3) determining high premiums for non-vulnerable groups and (4) a deep difference between the health services tariffs of the public and private service delivery sectors in Iran, have caused the coverage of health insurance for non-vulnerable refugees to be challenging. Furthermore, some policy solutions were found to improve the health insurance coverage of refugees in Iran. These included removing household size from premium calculations, lowering current premium rates and getting monthly premiums from non-vulnerable refugees.
Conclusions:
A number of factors have caused health insurance coverage to be inaccessible for refugees, especially non-vulnerable refugees in Iran. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt effective policies to improve the health financing for the refugee with the aim of ensuring financial protection, taking into account the different actors and the interactions between them.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Design Example: Analyzing Capacity Contours for Flood Risk Assessment
Coping Strategies: Problem Focused
For example, consider a student who struggles to understand their...
Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
Actuarial Approach
Consider the example of a high-risk surgical procedure with significant early-stage mortality. A two-year clinical study is conducted,...
Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...

