Healthcare in Israel - History

History

With the start of the British Mandate for Palestine, measures were taken to improve public health in the area. In Jerusalem, accumulated refuse heaps were removed, public rubbish bins were installed; the entire population was vaccinated against smallpox, and pools and cisterns were covered with mosquito repellent as part of the campaign to eradicate malaria. In 1929, the Zionist Commission and the British authorities sent the Jewish epidemiologist Gideon Mer to Rosh Pina to establish a laboratory for malaria research. Mer's laboratory was instrumental in eradicating the disease. The public health care system in Israel was built on the foundations of the system introduced at this time.

Health insurance is administered by the Health maintenance organizations (Hebrew: קופת חולים, kupat holim, lit. sick fund, derived from the German Krankenkasse), most of which were set up by the labour unions before the founding of the State. These Health Maintenance Organizations are membership-based. Originally, the members paid membership fees to these funds, and received in return a set guarantee of health services.

In 1973 a special law was enacted which forced all employers in Israel to participate in the medical insurance of their workers, by means of a direct payment to the Health Maintenance Fund in which the workers were members. The duty of participation was eventually changed and diminished as part of the arrangements law (חוק הסדרים במשק המדינה) of 1991.

In 1988 the government appointed a Commission of Inquiry to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the Israeli health care system. The commission handed in the final report in 1990. The main recommendation of this report was to enact a National Health Insurance law in Israel.

Currently, there are 200 fewer doctors graduating from medical school, per year, compared to the country's needs, which could create a potential shortage of doctors in the future. To prevent such a shortage, the Jewish Agency and Ministry of Immigrant Absorption are running a program to encourage and facilitate the immigration of Jewish doctors from abroad. Though initially serving only 100 Jewish doctors from the former Soviet Union every year, it is now also working to absorb doctors from North America and Europe.