53% of Israelis want private health insurance but can't afford it
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65% of Israelis don't trust public health system
Survey commissioned by Society for Patients' Rights in Israel shows majority of Israelis believe services provided as part of state healthcare basket are insufficient, 76% have complementary or private health insurance.
The majority of Israel's citizens are not relaying on the medical service offered by the state and have purchased a private health insurance in order to feel safe, a new survey shows.
Sixty-six percent of the respondents believe private insurance is required to cover the services that are not provided in the healthcare basket, and 64% believe that without a private insurance they will have to raise money to deal with a serious illness.
According to the poll, which was commissioned by the Society for Patients' Rights in Israel and conducted by Dr. Mina Tzemach of the Midgam research center among 500 respondents over the age of 25, 67% of the public believe that the services they receive as part of the state healthcare basket are insufficient, and therefore 76% of the respondents – and 76% of the general public – have a private or complementary health insurance.
Ongoing Gap
Arab babies have more than double the chance of dying in the first year of their lives than Jewish babies, Health Ministry report shows. Overall infant mortality rate in Israel is constantly dropping, with 3.5 deaths per 1,000 births in 2011.
Among those who don't have a private insurance, only 7.3% think it's unnecessary, while 53.7% said the only reason they don't have such an insurance is because they can't afford it.
Forty-five percent of the respondents said that if they had to spend NIS 1,000 (about $250) a month on medications or treatments, they would be forced to cut their expenses on food and other basic products. Sixty-six percent would be forced to cut their expenses on basic commodities is if they had to spend NIS 5,000 a month on their health.
The figures point to the Israeli public's lack of trust in the public health system, which is one of the issues former Health Minister Yael German tried to deal with during her term. Now that the Knesset has been dissolved, the recommendations for a reform in complementary and private health insurance and an increase in resources for the public system have been shelved and are waiting for the next health minister.
Public hospital directors convened this week to protest against the budget shortage, claiming that it affects their ability to provide patients with good service. The public appears to support their claim, with 60.7% of respondents saying that the number of hospital beds and manpower budget must be increased, and 72.8% saying that the health basket should include more medications.
"The survey reflects a gloomy reality, in which a majority of the public has lost its faith in the public health system," says Shmuel Ben Yaakov, chairman of the Society for Patients Rights in Israel. "This leads those who can afford it to find solutions in the private systems.
"The state's helplessness in changing the current situation is widening the gaps between people of means and those who don't have the money and are forced to rely on the deficient services in the health system.
"We call on the Israeli government and the Health Ministry to urgently deal with the public health system before it's too late. They must urgently add budgets to the health system, expand the healthcare basket, improve infrastructures and add manpower to the hospitals, as well as provide incentives to shorten admission to surgery and different medical systems. This is the only way to stop the private health system from growing and restore the public's faith in the public system."
