Dental coverage by health funds for children aged 8-10 will begin on Friday, July 1, as part of the basket of healthcare services. There will no longer be any need for supplementary health insurance. The cabinet today unanimously approved the measure previously agreed upon between the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance. The cost of this stage of the plan is NIS 80 million a year.
The expanded coverage, initiated by Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman, will come into effect in stages. Coverage of children up to twelve will begin next year, and be expanded up to the age of 14 in 2014. Currently, the health funds charge a NIS 20 surcharge for children's dental care, including check-ups, X-rays, fillings, and extractions.
The Ministry of Health says that 190,000 children up to the age of 8 were received dental care between July 2010, when coverage began, through March 2011. The ministry said that public response to the program was high, that the average cost of dental treatment per child up to the age of 8 was NIS 935, and that the cost of private treatment would be four times as much.
Last year, the government said that private dentists could participate in the program, if they incorporated under non-profit organizations. To date, no such NPO has been set up, and dentists allege that the Ministry of Health criteria were designed to prevent them from participating in the program, in order to keep it in the hands of the health funds. The ministry demands that a dental NPO have NIS 15 million in equity, a sum that was later lowered to NIS 10 million. The ministry claims that the reason no dental NPO has been established is because the enterprises do not want to be non-profits.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 26, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011