A Victory for Equal Access to Health-Care

In December 2007, the Knesset approved an arrangement between the Ministries of Health and Finance that prevents Israel’s health funds from including life-saving drugs and other essential treatments only in their supplementary insurance plans. The arrangement revokes the permission granted by the Ministry of Health to the large Kupot Holim [health funds] in early 2007 to expand their supplementary insurance plans to include life-saving drugs and other essential treatment not contained in the national health services basket. The arrangement also includes an expansion of the universal health basket of services – available to all Israelis. This landmark victory was the result of an intensive campaign by ACRI, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Adva Center to highlight among decision-makers the dangers of an increasingly privatized health system that gravely violates the right to health of the poor and the sick.