Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who serves as acting minister of health, and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz signed a directive two days ago to raise hospitalization fees by 5.6%. No notice was sent to correspondents, so they could write about it; notification was made on the government notices website and in notices in some daily papers.
Ostensibly, the rate hike will not affect the public because health funds pay hospitalization fees, but as the health funds spend more on hospitalization fees, they will have less money for other purposes, such as procuring advanced medical equipment. Clalit Health Services alone will have to absorb an extra cost of NIS 150 million for the higher hospitalization fees on top of the extra cost its absorbed last year. Maccabi Healtcare Services is expected to lose NIS 100 million, because 40% of its expenses are for hospitalization fees.
In effect, the higher hospitalization fees are tantamount to a quiet cut in the health budget.
The health funds trace the hospitalization fees hike to the original problem, which is that the government, which is supposed to be hospitals' regulator, is also the owner of government hospitals. The government therefore inflates hospitalization fees in order to cover the deficits of its hospitals, instead of demanding better efficiency.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 27, 2010
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