National child payments will be revoked for children who drop out of school if the 2008 Economics Arrangements Bill becomes law, affecting numerous families whose at-risk teens have thumbed their noses at society and skipped mandatory education.
The Economics Arrangements Bill, the supplementary legislation that acts as a rider to the annual budget, comes up for discussion next week in a cabinet session, before being brought to the Knesset floor later in the year.
Families with errant teenagers are not the only ones who will be affected if the bill is passed in its present form.
Allowances to polio patients, a hard-won measure that only recently made it through the Knesset, would be slashed.
Medical care for people who are hurt in traffic accidents would be determined by their health maintenance organization (kupat holim) instead of their car insurance companies, as is presently the case.
Police officers and motor vehicle accident victims are among others whose benefits will be slashed if the bill become law.
The existing police emergency call centers would be privatized, affecting 300 police employees. The Postal Bank would be privatized as well.
Labor Knesset member Shelly Yechimovich slammed the proposal in a letter to her party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, saying it would dissolve “laws that have been compiled through years of efforts…which the Knesset passed by an overwhelming majority.”
The Economics Arrangements Bill contains approximately 100 clauses covering various aspects of life in