Universal And Compulsary

Israel's Health Care System is both universal and compulsory. The health issues are handled by small number of organizations which are funded by the government. There are various Benefit Packages which are uniform in nature and the citizens are equally entitled to make use of these. No matter what kind of a financial background a person belongs to, all the fundings for the treatment of a citizen is done by the government.

The system of health care in Israel is considered most advanced across the globe. The various achievements in health care services, medical research and public accessibility makes it possible to grab a world wide respectable position. The Israel's Health care system was built on the grounds of health services which were active in Israel before the state of Israel was founded, that is the time of British Mandate. The set up of the health insurance was made by the labor union who formed the Health maintenance organization. The members of this organization paid the membership fees in order to stay assured of the health services. A law was enforced in the year 1973, which forced all the employers in Israel to get the medical insurance of their workers by paying a fixed direct payment. These payments are collected in the health maintenance fund. As a part of the arrangements law, these duties of participation were eventually changed and lowered. A commission was also set up in 1988 to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the Israel's health care system.

The basic recommendation made by the report presented by this commission was to enact an Insurance law for health.

Israel maintains a socialized health care system which ensures the provision of health services to all the residents of the country Israel. The residents are required to register with one of the four health service funds to avail the services. The citizens are asked to pay a health insurance tax to be eligible. The coverage comprises of preventive medicines, medical diagnosis, hospitalization, medical treatment, surgery, transplants, dental care for children, drug abuse treatment, alcoholism treatment, treatment for obstetrics and fertility, medication for chronic diseases and paramedical services which include occupational therapy and physiotherapy etc.

A mixture of semi-private, private and public centers work to provide for the health care services. In general, primary and family medicine services are managed directly by Clalit for the members. Whereas, the other HMOs work for their own clinics in large cities and also for the contract made with smaller communities again as family practice clinics. A very small number of the hospitals in Israel are completely private and the most are public. These public hospitals are run by the health ministry and some of them are run by Clalit.

The health system in the communities aims at the prevention of the fluent problems through various clinics and institutes. They also take up various projects for rehabilitation in to a community environment and acts for the advancement of health in areas such as fitness, lifestyle, family planning and nutrition.