A study by the University of Haifa's Institute for the Study of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea reveals that kibbutz spending for health has been decreasing from year to year. The collectives are also transferring overall responsibility for health care to the families and to the individuals living on the kibbutz.
The researchers point to a drastic reduction in personnel involved in the health-care area on the kibbutzim. In 2000, for example, 90% of the kibbutzim had employees involved in managing the health care system. By 2004, this had dropped to two thirds of the kibbutzim.
In the year 2000, a quarter of the kibbutzim had a doctor living on-site; by 2004, only 16% of the kibbutzim had a resident physician. The proportion of nurses also dropped, and fewer emergency services were being provided by the kibbutzim in 2004.
The Kibbutz Institute researchers, who surveyed 78 kibbutzim from 2000-2004, attribute the cutbacks to the desire of kibbutzim to adjust to the health service system provided in the State health insurance law. The kibbutzim themselves have also been undergoing structural changes, introducing measures of privatization to save on costs.
"There is a new and striking phenomenon," the researchers state, "and that is the solution to emergency services [being supplied] by people from outside the kibbutz, especially by companies that supply services to subscribers. There is such a service on 50% of the kibbutzim." Symptomatic of the situation, perhaps, is the growing absence of their own ambulances on the kibbutz.
The number of kibbutzim that cover all or most of their members' medical expenses has also dropped. Israel's health insurance law provides for a basic basket of services. The Israeli equivalent of the HMOs, the Sick Funds, offer supplementary insurance as do private insurers. The percentage of kibbutzim providing coverage for supplementary health insurance dropped from 87% in 2000 to only 31% of the collectives in 2004.
Other cutbacks by the kibbutzim include special health needs for children, supply of non-prescription drugs, genetic testing, and coverage of inoculations not covered by the basic basket.
Alternative medicine is also seen as a luxury, as 67% of the kibbutzim covered alternative drugs in 2000, but just 12% continued to do so in 2004.
Summing up the situation, Dr. Gila Adar, a kibbutz member herself who has headed the University of Haifa's Kibbutz Institute, said that "the general tendency on most kibbutzim is to be linked to the basket of health services provided by the State's health insurance law and to reduce the burden on the kibbutz's budget in accordance with this basket." The additional expenses for health care, she continued, "are imposed on the members' own budget."
Based on an article that originally appeared in Haifa University's Focus Magazine.
The researchers point to a drastic reduction in personnel involved in the health-care area on the kibbutzim. In 2000, for example, 90% of the kibbutzim had employees involved in managing the health care system. By 2004, this had dropped to two thirds of the kibbutzim.
In the year 2000, a quarter of the kibbutzim had a doctor living on-site; by 2004, only 16% of the kibbutzim had a resident physician. The proportion of nurses also dropped, and fewer emergency services were being provided by the kibbutzim in 2004.
The Kibbutz Institute researchers, who surveyed 78 kibbutzim from 2000-2004, attribute the cutbacks to the desire of kibbutzim to adjust to the health service system provided in the State health insurance law. The kibbutzim themselves have also been undergoing structural changes, introducing measures of privatization to save on costs.
"There is a new and striking phenomenon," the researchers state, "and that is the solution to emergency services [being supplied] by people from outside the kibbutz, especially by companies that supply services to subscribers. There is such a service on 50% of the kibbutzim." Symptomatic of the situation, perhaps, is the growing absence of their own ambulances on the kibbutz.
The number of kibbutzim that cover all or most of their members' medical expenses has also dropped. Israel's health insurance law provides for a basic basket of services. The Israeli equivalent of the HMOs, the Sick Funds, offer supplementary insurance as do private insurers. The percentage of kibbutzim providing coverage for supplementary health insurance dropped from 87% in 2000 to only 31% of the collectives in 2004.
Other cutbacks by the kibbutzim include special health needs for children, supply of non-prescription drugs, genetic testing, and coverage of inoculations not covered by the basic basket.
Alternative medicine is also seen as a luxury, as 67% of the kibbutzim covered alternative drugs in 2000, but just 12% continued to do so in 2004.
Summing up the situation, Dr. Gila Adar, a kibbutz member herself who has headed the University of Haifa's Kibbutz Institute, said that "the general tendency on most kibbutzim is to be linked to the basket of health services provided by the State's health insurance law and to reduce the burden on the kibbutz's budget in accordance with this basket." The additional expenses for health care, she continued, "are imposed on the members' own budget."
Based on an article that originally appeared in Haifa University's Focus Magazine.