It is expected that the Finance Committee will approve the initiative of the Ministry of Health to reduce the rate of the generic drug purchase deductible from 15% to 10%, for drugs that cost over 100 NIS.

The discount, expected to cost the HMOs some 60 million NIS is acceptable due to the fact that from 1998-2006 the HMOs received an unused surplus budget of 147 million NIS for drug purchase.