Socioeconomic Status Groups And Health Care System In Israel

Israel is a country in the Middle Eastern part of the world. It borders Egypt, Jordan and Syria and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. It is home to over 8 million people that are of many different demographics. The major ethnic group in this area is made up of people that are Jewish. They constitute 74.7% of the population. The minor ethnic groups included people that are non-Jewish (Arabs, Druze, Aramean, Armenian, Christian, and Circassian people). They make up 25.2 % of the population. Israel’s healthcare system provides universal coverage for all Israeli citizens and permeant residents. This is based on a national health insurance law that was passed in 1995. This system is known as Kupot Cholim. Within this system, the citizens of Israel can choose from one of four non-profit, official health insurance organizations. These health plans guarantee basic health services for all Israeli citizens and permeant residents. The law prohibits these organizations from denying any Israeli resident service. Private insurance is also available to people who decide to improve or increase their health insurance options. Some people may feel this is necessary due to the fact that dental care for adults, optometry, and home care are typically not included in the national health care plans. While all citizens are offered health care, it seems that some population groups have poorer health indicators than others. A presentation from the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-op and Development) states these groups are: people that aren’t Jewish, people living on the periphery, and people of poor socioeconomic status (SES) groups.

This presentation from the OECD gives some statistics comparing the health status of Jewish people and Arabian people. They state that “Arabs have worse health status than Jews on many indicators”. An example of this is life expectancy. The life expectancy for a Jewish male is 80.3 and 83.9 for a Jewish female, while it is only 76.3 for a Arabian male and 80.7 for a Arabian female. Infant mortality is also higher for the Arabian community. It is 6.7 infant deaths out of every 1,000 live births while the Jewish community’s is at 2.9 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births. Other examples consist of child mortality, age-adjusted mortality (these being heart disease, diabetes, and lung cancer) and stillbirth rates. Arabs are worse off than Jews in all of these other examples as well.

Israel has six districts. These being the Central, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, North, and South districts. The North and South districts are the most peripheral districts while the Central district is in the middle of the country. The presentation from the OECD also claims that the North and South districts have higher infant mortality rates (per 1,000 live births) than the Central district. Their statistics show these are 2.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the central district compared to 4.4 infant deaths in the North District and 6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in the South district. The OCED presentation shows that poor socioeconomic status is “associated with worse health indicators”. The presentation talks about the correlation of diabetes and asthma among these lower SES groups. Although they gave no explanation for the correlation, they did claim that ethnic origin was not a factor. They gave two other examples of the interaction between poor SES groups and worse health indicators. These being treatment outcomes and education.

Overall, it is said that Israel’s health care system is one that works well seeing that life expectancy (for Israel as a whole) is fairly high. This doesn’t take away from the existing disparities and they are something that should be talked about. A factor in these disparities may have something to do with the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This is conflict between Jews and Arabs over possession of the territory of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This is a violent, ongoing clash that is said to have been going on for around 51 years. From what I am able to understand, Palestine is an independent state that is not a part of Israel but borders of these two territories are unclear. This factor complicates thing because there are many matters that are uncertain for the people living in this area as well as surrounding areas. While I will not say this conflict is a reason for these health disparities, it is something should be considered when talking about this topic and is something that frequently came up during my research.