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-- an ongoing decline in services and drugs provided by the state, and the increase in what individuals receive based on their ability to pay; and
-- the promotion of supplementary insurance to well-off people, leaving the rest disempowered and left out.
Instead of fixing the system, policy makes it worse by catering to the needs of people who can afford them, not the rest.
The Fifth Health Fund
It's another symptom of commoditization, contradicting the National Health Insurance Law defining national health funds as public bodies and declaring new funds must be non-profit. However, spending cut priorities pressured national health funds to privatize, and got the idea included in the 2009-2010 Economic Arrangements Law, so far not voted on in the Knesset, but may be to enhance competition and efficiency. Instead of solving public healthcare problems, it will further undermine social solidarity and deepen the existing inequality, the very direction Israel is heading.
Rights in the Occupied Territories
Israel's preemptive, indiscriminate, Operation Cast Lead attack against Gazan civilians took a devastating toll, compounding the existing humanitarian crisis with the Territory under siege. Of course, medical services were greatly impacted, including willful attacks against hospitals, other health facilities, ambulances, and providers. In addition, Gaza's entire infrastructure was savaged, affecting electricity, water and sewage facilities already severely compromised.
Israel committed wanton crimes of war and against humanity continuing to this day, causing incalculable human suffering further impacted by closure and isolation. Post-conflict, Israel obstructed and vilified independent investigations, then denied serious charges in their aftermath, including by their own combat veterans based on their personal experiences they went public on to reveal.
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