Health Care Stories: Jerusalem, Israel

Yehuda wants you to know the truth about universal health care--Israeli-style.


Israel has universal health care, and no one is dying in the street. On the contrary, we have one of the best health care systems in the world. Payment is linked to your salary.

And we have choices, too. There are four basic health care systems, including government-run, semi-government, and two private systems, and all use the same payment scheme. Except for the first of these, we can pick our doctors. Furthermore, people are free to pay privately for additional, different, or alternative care, should they so desire.

My ex-wife just had a heart transplant a few days ago. My father came to Israel when he was retired and is receiving chemo treatments for cancer, and will be for the rest of his life. My nephew died from Familial Dysautonomia a few weeks ago; he lived to 19 years old, which is very high for someone with FD, and Israel is the top center for FD research and knowledge in the world.

My wife comes from Canada, and she says that Canada's health care is fantastic. She can't believe any modern country wouldn't have universal health coverage. It is the US who is, right now and for the last several decades, letting its citizens die in the streets, from lack of health care coverage. How on earth can anyone argue that
people are better off now than they would be under universal health care, unless the millions of poor people simply don't count?



Yehuda

Jerusalem, Israel


Check out Yehuda's blog, Yehuda.