Just the Facts: Health insured and health ensured

National Health Insurance Law allows Israel’s residents to register with one of the state’s health maintenance organizations, which cover a variety of healthcare services.

By AVIEL YELNEK
hospital 521 (photo credit: courtesy)
hospital 521
(photo credit: courtesy)
Since the National Health Insurance Law went into force in 1994, Israel’s residents have the right to register with one of the state’s health maintenance organizations (HMOs, in Hebrew kupot holim, “health funds”), which cover a variety of healthcare services and medications, as designated and periodically updated by the Health Ministry in its “basket” of healthcare services. This basket defines which healthcare services and medications must be provided by the HMO to all of its insured members.
The insurance is funded by means of a healthcare tax based on a percentage of the monthly income of every employee. Health insurance does not cover all of the medications or treatments available through modern medicine. For this reason, the HMOs themselves, as well as private companies, offer supplementary insurance aimed at partial or complete coverage for treatments and medications that are not included in the basket of healthcare services.
According to the Social Survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2010 76 percent of Israel’s residents had supplementary health insurance from one of the HMOs. The percentage of Jerusalemites with supplementary insurance was 60%, which was significantly lower than the figure for residents of Tel Aviv (88%), Rishon Lezion (87%) and Haifa (83%). The data also indicate that 41% of Israelis had disability insurance through one of the HMOs. The percentage of Jerusalemites with disability insurance was only 21%, which was significantly lower than the figure for residents of Tel Aviv (59%), Rishon Lezion (47%) and Haifa (45%). The percentage of individuals with disability insurance rises as the age of the insured population rises, and therefore the low percentage of Jerusalem’s disability-insured population is most likely a result of the city’s high percentage of children under the age of 18.
Interestingly, 28% of Israelis had private health insurance outside the framework of the HMOs. The percentage of Jerusalemites with private health insurance was only 18%, which was lower than the figure for residents of Rishon Lezion (41%), Haifa (35%) and Tel Aviv (32%). 
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