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World Jewish News
WHO reoprt: Israel lagging in health investment
07.06.2009
The government's portion in overall health spending in Israel has dropped from 63 percent of spending in 2000 to 56 percent in 2006, a World Health Organization report said Sunday.
According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics 2007 saw an increase in government spending to 57 percent of health expenditure.
WHO figures also show that the drop in overall health spending in Israel runs opposite to the global trend of increasing government involvement so to unburden private citizens.
In the U.K., for example, health spending rose from 81 percent in 2000 to 87 percent in 2006; U.S. governmental health spending rates up from 44 percent to 46 in the equivalent period and even Iran went from 37 percent in 2000 to 50 in 2006.
Israel is also trailing in health spending, among both rich and poor, as 2006 spending rose only a fractional 7.5 percent from 2000 to $1,675. In the equivalent period the U.S. increased spending by 47 percent, in the U.K. spending went up by 87 percent, while in Iran showed a 230 percent leap.
Dr. Milka Donchin, a public health expert in Jerusalem's Hebrew University, says that in Israel, similarly to global figures, "people with lower incomes and education, as well as fewer job opportunities are less healthy. They have a higher rate of chronic diseases and suffer a double blow since they also have less access to health services."
In the long run, Donchin says, it will cost the country more, since those individuals will arrive at hospitals only when they are seriously ill.
"The realization that an investment in health and education is economically smarter has already arrived in other places around the world. If we don't understand it we shall pay dearly in the very near future," she said.
By Nurit Wurgaft
Источник: Haaretz
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