Should Israel be concerned by the high proportion of medical care paid for privately: comments from a U.S. perspective

As a frequent visitor to Israel, I am keenly aware of the concerns of many Israelis that limits in government funding is forcing a high proportion of the country’s medical care to be paid by private sources. Frequently used statistics suggested that close to 40 % of health care is paid for by private funds and that this generates inequalities in terms of access to needed services. The results of a recent IJHPR paper by Engelcin-Nissan and Shmueli cast some doubts on these concerns although they do suggest some degree of inequality in access to needed care. The authors suggest that a better measure of the proportion of private uses of care is not 39 % but about 15 %. And that for some essential medical services it is much lower; in particular, it is less than 10 % for primary care. On the other hand, the study indicates that, in 2009, 15 % of hospitalizations had some private funding. Moreover, a related study has indicated that in 2014 60 % of surgeries were supported by private funds. The authors raise additional concerns that sicker individuals and those with higher income are more likely to use private financing.

Whether this level of private spending and its concentration on sicker and higher income individuals violates the commitment of equity and fairness is up to the citizens of Israel. For those of us in the U.S. we only wish our level of inequality was so low. In making the decision on what Israel should do about its inequality it would be helpful to understand why individuals use private funding for services that are covered by the national health insurance system. And, most importantly does using a different source of funds (private versus public) impact on the health outcomes of the care involved. This issue is particularly relevant with respect to the very high use of private financing for surgeries.