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Reducing health inequalities between the poor and the rich is one of the challenges that the Iranian healthcare sector is facing. One of the goals of the Iranian Government in the Healthcare Sector Evolution Plan (HSEP) is claimed to be creating an opportunity for the poor to use inexpensive services. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the status of the poor in the HSEP. Based on this evaluation, the authors will provide policy recommendations to improve the benefits of the HSEP for the poor people.

This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2017. The research sample includes policymakers, experts and scholars at the macro-level of the Iranian healthcare system who were well-aware of the financial support for the poor. Overall, 35 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Data were analyzed based on the thematic analysis method.

The effects of the HSEP on the poor were studied in terms of their positive outcomes and challenges. Despite the achievements of the HSEP for all people, the most important challenge was the lack of targeted state subsidies for the poor. These subsidies should have included free insurance coverage, reducing inpatient payment and allocation of a separate budget for the poor.

Adopting some policies to target public health subsidies toward the poor such as free insurance specific for the poor (based on means testing), as well as user fee exemption and waivers could improve access to health services for them in Iran. In addition, separate funding for such policies, strengthening health prevention and health care services for marginalized populations, and improving their health literacy could help ensure the poor’s benefiting more from the health care services.

The purpose of this paper is to provide explanation for the economic development of the earliest Islamic state. It focuses on the role of human capital as the most important element of this model and focuses on four dimensions of development of human personality in Islam: the incentive structure, rules of behavior, institutions and policies.

A review and analysis of the measures and policies that Prophet of Islam and his successors adopted are made to arrive at the underlying economic model of development.

The major finding is the role of human capital in the development of the economy at that time.

The contribution of the paper is to identify the critical role of education and skills for the development of the economy at present.

Investigating the import of pharmaceutical products, as one of the essential goods of the country to improve health and medical conditions, is important in accelerating the economic growth and enhancing the welfare of the community. This paper aims to estimate the income and price elasticity of pharmaceutical import demand in Iran.

In this research, the function of Iran's pharmaceutical import demand was estimated and calculated using the co-integration method and error correction techniques with the seasonal data of 2005–2016 to identify factors related to import, as well as relevant price, and income elasticity.

The research results showed that the price elasticity of Iran's long-term pharmaceutical import demand was 0.04; that is, the rate of pharmaceutical import demanded by Iran was not sensitive to change in relative price. Additionally, the long-term income elasticity of Iran's pharmaceutical demand was 0.69, meaning that an increase in Iran's income did not have a highly positive impact on the volume of Iran's pharmaceutical import.

Estimating the function of the demand for pharmaceutical import may pave the way to adopt appropriate economic policies. Furthermore, estimating this function and calculating income and price elasticity is a step toward minimizing government expenditures and can be a great contribution in designing trade policies.