Last update - 00:00 26/02/2008
Health basket panel: 300,000 won't get medicine they need
By Yuval Azoulay
The committee that determines the health basket of state-funded medicines
has finished making up a list of the medicines and medical technologies that will be available to the Israeli public in 2008. According to the committee, 300 thousand sick people will not receive the medicine they need.
The total cost of the basket is roughly NIS 450 million.
Head of the committee Professor Mordechai Fineru said Tuesday that while the committee chose the most critical medicines there will still be two sick people in Israel who will not receive the medical treatment they need for every sick person who does.
"We tried to give every sick person the medicine that is necessary to them. However, there are many gaps in the basket's medical coverage that have appeared in the past few years and we could not fill them all," Fineru said.
"Some of the public will be happy with our decisions, others will not. I apologize to them," Fineru said, adding that he is hopeful that in 2009 they will be able to help them more.
Health Minister Yaakov Ben-Yizri said that the drop in the dollar versus the shekel cheapened the price of medicines, which allowed the committee to add more medicines to the basket.
According to the minister, he did not interfere in the committee's work despite numerous attempts to pressure him into putting a certain medicine in the basket.
The Histadrut labor federation doctors refused to take part in the committee, saying that the budget allocated was to low to supply the proper medical treatment.