The Healthcare System

Private funding currently represents about 43 percent of the overall funding, the highest beyond the United States among the developed countries, and the highest among countries in which universal health insurance is legally guaranteed for all residents via National Health Insurance.

The “Americanization” of the Israeli healthcare system is reflected at this stage in growing gaps in access to care and loss of income protection as well as efficiency, which can be measured by the developing inflation in the system. This reality is not reflected as yet in public health indicators. The growing gaps between the United States and the 22 high income OECD countries in favor of the latter may be signaling what can be expected in Israel in terms of its achievements in the health of its population. Against this backdrop, the efforts by the large healthcare service providers to deepen their focused activities in closing the gaps stand out.

This paper appears in the Center’s annual publication State of the Nation Report – Society, Economy and Policy 2009.