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While moving to Israel has a plethora of benefits, there are some very real intricacies to take note of when making the leap to start anew in the Holy Land. Although Israel is known for its impeccable healthcare, it’s important to understand that there are a few complexities associated with your transition into Israel. In this guide, we break down the essentials of Kupat Cholim, offering a streamlined summary of what to think about regarding your choice of Israeli healthcare.
Choosing the Right Kupat Cholim Plan
Let’s start with the basics. What is Kupat Cholim, and is it necessary to slot into Israel as a permanent resident?
Kupat Cholim, also commonly spelt Kupot Cholim or Kupat Holim, is a state-mandated health fund all Israeli residents must own under Israel's universal healthcare framework.
As this is state-mandated by The National Health Insurance Law, residents and citizens must join one of the four major health maintenance organisations (HMOs) in Israel.
Namely, these four Israeli HMOs are:
Kupat Holim Clalit
Kupat Holim Maccabi
Kupat Holim Meuhedet
Kupat Holim Leumit
Choosing a plan can seem overwhelming at first, so below are a few points to take note of when researching the best plan for you and your family’s needs.
But before we get into more detail regarding the factors you need to weigh when choosing a plan, it’s imperative to note that all four healthcare plans have a compulsory minimum coverage of benefits they need to offer as a baseline. Israel’s Ministry of Health regulates all Kupat Cholim. It has a prerequisite of services that the government deems as a legal obligation to include in their basic healthcare coverage, or “Health Basket”.
You might think, “Well, that’s just great! If they are all the same, how am I supposed to choose one?”
That’s a great question, thanks for asking!
Your key to choosing the most relevant plan for you and your family will heavily link in with the following significant aspects:
Geography / Accessibility
Recommendations
Particular / Specialised Services
Supplemental Service Offerings
Geography / Accessibility
Not all HMOs are equally accessible in all the areas of Israel. Remember that if you have an emergency or are pressed to visit your clinic, you don’t want to travel far to reach your medical destination. Factors include what health fund clinic is nearest to where you reside, how accessible it is with public and/or private transport, whether there is a branch in a commercial centre you will be frequenting, and so forth.
Although your local clinic may not be where you make 100% of your medical needs visits, your kupah's branch is often where you'll need to be with regular doctor appointments, seeing a nurse, updating your prescriptions and more - most of your standard healthcare needs.
Recommendations
Recommendations are also a great source of guidance when choosing your HMO.
What’s excellent about recommendations is that they are from experience and not carefully curated advertisements selling an ideal - they are real-life accounts of what it is to be a part of a particular HMO. Your first prize for recommendations would be to ask friends and family living in the same area what their honest experiences are regarding customer service, which plans offer the most English-speaking medical professionals in the area, clinic hours and what their overall recommendation is, among other things.
If you don’t have any friends, family or acquaintances you feel comfortable contacting, don't fret. Local services are created to reduce stress and help guide you in the right direction, like mySabra or public forums you can look into, like Facebook groups and communities that act as crowdsourcing resources to help guide you with a broader local perspective.
Particular / Specialised Services
Another major deciding factor could be if you need a specific or specialised service and which plans cater to that need. For example, is there a hospital you will need as a regular resource and which plan has special arrangements with that hospital?
Although all four kupahs offer decent support for a comprehensive list of conditions, if you have a particular preference, this may be a great indicator of a specific HMO that will be best suited for your personal health needs.
Although all plans may offer you access to certain specialists, not all plans cover the costs of seeing those kinds of specialists or your preferred specialist. Suppose you have any chronic conditions or medical needs that will require more than the average visit count. In that case, it may be worth combing through the finer print of which plans cover the services you will make use of, who you need to see in a professional medical capacity and how accessible those preferred suppliers are to you.
Supplemental Service Offerings
Although the standard healthcare offers a range of benefits and services, you may be looking to supplement your plan to include additional medical services that may not be provided as a standard in the baseline plans.
The Ministry of Health also regulates supplemental services of these HMOs, but unlike the baseline of standard healthcare coverage, the HMOs have a bit of wiggle room regarding the additional benefits they may offer with their supplemental health service plans (SHABAN/שב״ן - Sherutei Briut Nosafim).
You’ll find that these supplemental plans are easily comparable and may contain many of the same benefits; however, there may be slight differences in certain services that could be imperative to what you’re ultimately looking to benefit from your plan, for example: a discount on your gym membership.
Supplemental health service plans are 100% optional and not a requirement via Kupat Cholim. The beauty of these services is that you can add them onto your plan, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and it won’t affect your added premium; all members get treated the same. Your pre-existing conditions are also in no way a reason for you to be turned away from adding these additional services.
Please note that supplemental services and benefits differ from private insurance. Private insurance beats to a slightly different tune and is regulated by the Finance Ministry. But we’ll get to that on a different blog, so stay tuned!
In conclusion, understanding and optimising your Kupat Cholim options is crucial for a smoother transition into Israel to reduce your chances of being overwhelmed with making a potentially uninformed decision upon arrival in Israel. Luckily, you can switch between your health plans, and you're not “stuck” with the first plan you choose. But as a busy individual, it may be worth investing either the time in your research or investing in services that were founded to do just that: to assist with intricacies like these and to make your life easier, absorbing your administrative burdens and ultimately reducing your stress and freeing up your time, like mySabra.
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