Health in First to Sixth Economic, Social, and Cultural Development Plans of Iran: A Document Analysis

Background: Development plans aimed at macro-management planning in a country significantly impact all functional fields. This study investigated the status and significance of the health sector in the first to sixth economic, social, and cultural development plans in Iran.  Methods: This was a review study using documentary analysis method. The review was conducted with an emphasis on purposefully selected upstream information. Then, the obtained data were analyzed by the second-hand documents, including authentic reports and published studies on this topic. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made checklist. Data analysis was run using content analysis. Results: There has been increasing attention to the health sector issues throughout development plans. Civil engineering, pharmaceuticals supply, and population control in the first and second plans; the extension of public insurance and service ranking in the third plan; formation of the Supreme Council of Health, and attention to medical emergencies in the fourth plan; targeting subsidies in the fifth plan; and policies to encourage population increase and reduce out-of-pocket expense have been the most critical concerns in the sixth development plan.  Conclusion: Failure to achieve the expected results in the plans and repeating the same text in the following plan indicates the government’s poor commitment to some plan aspects provision, especially at a particular time. Moreover, they paid insufficient attention to international trends and health promotion issues. These issues must be an urgent concern in future development plans.