Israel’s cabinet voted unanimously on Sunday, May 2, in favor of a Health Ministry plan that will provide comprehensive dental care for free or at minimal cost to all children up to age 8, to start in July 2010. In order to realize the plan, the Knesset must now pass legislation authorizing it.
Following the landmark vote, however, the plan was made conditional upon private, commercial dental services entering the market, including a fifth, for-profit health fund providing dental care exclusively. ACRI has long objected to the inclusion of private companies to the public health sector, including the proposed fifth health fund, as it restricts access to health care for all Israelis, particularly, the poor and sick. ACRI and the Coalition warn that the creation of the fifth health fund threatens to torpedo the entire dental reform.
Despite these obstacles, the Coalition for Public Dental Health, which has worked for two years to promote the inclusion of dental care into the universal basket of services, views this program as a first step in making dental care accessible for all children and the elderly and hopes it will come to fruition. The Coalition urges Knesset members to pass a draft bill that would authorize free dental care for all children up to age 18 and for adults over the age of 65.
In December 2009, the Coalition achieved a remarkable success when the government authorized Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman’s plan to allocate NIS 65 million to free basic dental care for Israeli children. This landmark decision came after the Health Ministry notified the High Court of Justice of its decision in June to triple the budget for preventative dental care for schoolchildren. The announcement was made in response to a High Court petition submitted by ACRI and Physicians for Human Rights, demanding all Israeli schoolchildren be provided with free-of-charge comprehensive dental care, as clearly stipulated in the National Health Insurance Law.
This series of events marks an unparalleled step in the effort to ensure the right to health, as the State is for the first time acknowledging dental health as an inseparable part of public health care – the field in which the discrepancy in access to care is currently most blatant.
