MoH And Treasury Divide Grows Over Approach To Israeli Health Care Crisis

The crisis in Israel's health care system has reached a new dimension.At the technical level, the source of the crisis is the disagreement between the Ministry of Health and the Treasury, and concerns updating the source of finance through the National Health Insurance Law. The difference between the financing that the Treasury is prepared to provide and that required by the Sick Funds is in the order of 1 billion new Israeli shekels ($300 million).

Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear that, apart from the financial manifestations, there are substantial differences in policy perspective between the Ministries regarding the nature of the NHIL, which is approaching the end of a so-called "transition phase."

The Law was legislated in spite of opposition in 1994 from the powerful Budget Division of the Treasury. Part of the Treasury's opposition was based on the suspicion that anchoring public rights in law would mean an increase in the national health expenditure. Another reason was that the Law took over a large part of the Budgetary Division's traditional powers of decision making, in determining the percentage of national resources to be allocated to the health care system.