Israel Healthcare Industry

Recent amendments to the Public Health Ordinance  will enable an allocation of funds from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Health to purchase advanced medical devices that will be dispersed to remote parts of the country to shorten waiting periods for scans/treatments. 

Recent political instability and the upcoming elections (Israel’s fifth election in two years) will affect the timeline of the process; however, health and government officials have set the goal of greater accessibility to medical devices as a top priority. 

Since 1995, Israel’s National Health Insurance law has ensured universal coverage for citizens and permanent residents. Residents choose from four competing nonprofit health plans that provide a mandated benefit package, including hospital, primary, specialty, mental health, and maternity care, as well as prescription drugs and other services. 

The pre-amendment Public Health Ordinance limited the number of heavy-duty medical devices per person, for example: one MRI machine for 189,000 people. Most of the heavy-duty medical devices like MRI and CT are in the greater Tel Aviv and Jerusalem metropolitan areas. Compared to the average OECD country, these nations have 17 MRI machines and 25.8 CT machines per million people, while Israel has only 5.1 MRI machines and 9.7 CT machines, respectively. Moreover, the scarcity of these devices, especially in the periphery, have created a backlog for patient care, which in certain cases, can take more than a year to schedule an MRI or a CT scan. 

Individuals who are interested in scheduling such a service typically encounter two mutually exclusive options: 

• Opt for the public option, inexpensive/free but long waiting periods; or
• Opt for the private option, expansive (less affordable) and might require travel long distances during irregular hours. 

The amendment will allow for the Ministry of Health to designate funds for medical facilities and hospitals to procure a total of additional 13 CT machines, 9 MRI machines, 2 automated devices for complex procedures, and 4 recompression chambers. 

U.S. firms interested in expanding sales in Israel should consider working with the U.S. Commercial Service in Israel to explore matchmaking, market research or other assistance that may prove beneficial. For more information about this or other healthcare opportunities, contact yariv.moravnik-shavitt@trade.gov.