High Court revokes children's dental care program
Judges rule government's decision to allocate NIS 65 million for kids' dental treatment fails to meet National Health Insurance Law guidelines
The unusual ruling revokes a government decision made last December in a telephone vote which was ratified a week later. The NIS 65 million sum was to be taken out of a NIS 415 million (roughly $108 million) budget which was added to the 2010 Health Basket.
The High Court ruling contradicts the attorney general's opinion on the matter. Quite rarely the Knesset and the attorney general presented opposite views in the case.
The State Prosecutor's Office, representing Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, endorsed Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman's initiative, while the Knesset's legal department opposed the plan, claiming such a constitutional change must be subject to legislative committees.
The Ministry of Health responded to the ruling by stating it will continue to seek ways to subsidize dental treatment for children.
"The deputy health minister and Health Ministry management consider the inclusion of dental treatment in the Health Basket as being of paramount importance… The High Court noted a technical problem in the government's decision, and ruled that the addition of new field into the Health Basket requires the approval of the Knesset Labor, Health and Welfare Committee," the ministry said.
Meital Yasur-Beit Or contributed to this report
