At the annual health care health care conference organized by the National Institute for health care Policy at the Dead Sea, Deputy Health Minister MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman officially announced he could promote a reform of Israel's health care services. In his announcement Rabbi Litzman noted intentions to ask the government to apply the law of succession on the plan, which was drafted as a law two years ago and has been under review since he took office.
The move will advance the reform the health care system has been considering for over a decade to transfer the responsibility for psychiatric treatment for Israel residents from community clinics and hospitals to health care funds. This responsibility is currently in the hands of the state.
The announcement puts the mental health reform into high gear. Fifteen years after the legislation of the Government Health care Insurance Law, psychiatry is expected to be handled just as physical ails are handled.
The State Comptroller's Report released two weeks ago pointed out extensive faults in Israel's mental health care system. The delayed reform addresses long wait times for mental care in public clinics and dilapidated infrastructures at psychiatric hospitals. Data recently gathered by the Health Ministry point to average wait times of four months for adults at clinics, and up to one year at clinics for children and adolescents.
