Priorities in the Israeli health care system

The Israeli health care system is looked upon by some people as one of the most advanced health care systems in the world in terms of access, quality, costs and coverage. The Israel health care system has four key components: (1) universal coverage; (2) ‘cradle to grave’ coverage; (3) coverage of both basic services and catastrophic care; and (4) coverage of medications. Patients pay a (relatively) small copayment to see specialists and to purchase medication; and, primary care is free. However, during 2011 the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) spent 5 months on a strike, justifying it as trying to ‘save’ the Israeli public health. This paper describes some aspects of the Israeli Health Care System, the criteria for setting priorities for the expenditures on health care and values underlying these criteria. The paper observes that the new agreement between the IMA and the government has given timely priority to problematic areas of specialization (in which there is an acute shortage of physicians) and to hospitals in the periphery of the country. Yet weak points in the health system in Israel remain. Particularly, the extent to which national health care expenditures are being financed privately—which is rising—and the parallel decline in the role of government financing.