Three calls for the Israeli health system and the pioneers

Israel has continued to lead the world in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines, having given most per capita vaccines and leaving the rest of the planet far behind.

The vaccination campaign, which began on December 20, began just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein took their pictures publicly, starting with vaccines given to health workers who came together just one day. followed by the population over 60 and those with basic conditions. .

People with breast disease and those over 55 are now being called in to get their pictures.

Contrary to early warning prophecies warning that many would be distrustful of the sights, tens of thousands of people have flocked to the vaccination centers every day to find out no. not just a life-saving vaccine but also the only hope that their lives will be the way they once knew they could restart.

Netanyahu deserves credit for successfully negotiating with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to get the vaccines quickly. Israel agreed to pay dearly for the vaccines – more than three times what the U.S. pays – and rightly so.

But most of the prizes have to go to the four health funds in the country, for the successful delivery of the most historically complex work in Israel’s history.

They met the challenge of the government to motivate hundreds of thousands of people every day.

Although vaccination efforts in the US and Britain have been slow and heavy, and many European countries have not even begun to protect their populations, Israel continues to deliver the vaccines quickly. and effectively.

Indeed Israeli health maintenance organizations can be traced back to an accident.

In 1911, Jewish pioneers who wanted to settle the land of Israel came to work as farm laborers with the Jewish philanthropist Barron Edmond James de Rothschild.

Life was hard and life expectancy was 50. The spread of disease, food was scarce and medical care was scarce.

Then tragedy struck. Baruch Priver, a fruit picker in an orchard in Ein Ganim, where Petah Tikva stands today, put his arm in a water pump.

He was loaded onto a horse-drawn cart and taken the long way to a hospital where doctors had no choice but to go around.

His companions, led by the famous Zionist activist Berl Katznelson, were concerned about the lack of medical care and the cost of its availability.

“We need to set up a fund, a kupa, to address medical costs per employee, “Katznelson said.

Prof. Shifra Shvarts from Ben-Gurion University Medical Education Center, an expert in the history of healthcare, explains:

“At the time, health insurance was already being considered in Europe, with a system that provided health care paid in part by employers,” she says.

“But in pre-state Palestine, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the well-being of the Jewish workers was not a concern. So the pioneers decided to take matters into their own hands, reaching out to the medical society. and set up the first health fund. “

Each employee contributed a percentage of their pay, including membership in the fund which also covered the expenses of family members and those who had been out of work for some time.

The first clinic opened in a tent and a nurse was assigned to run it.

More clinics were soon opened across the country. They were organized by area and expanded so much until 1920, the Histadrut labor alliance was re-established by the clinics and the first national health fund came into being.

Today, we call it the Health Fund Clalit (the universal fund) and it serves more than half the population.

It wasn’t long before another fund, organized by farmers, teachers and clerks, came along that did not follow Katznelson’s socialist vision.

They set up their own network of clinics, some in urban areas and others in rural communities. The network became the Leumit (national asset) in the 1930s and today cares for 700,000 Israelis.

In 1941, a group of athletes broke away from the trade union and set up their own fund to provide health care for themselves and their families. They named him Maccabi, named for the sport-based youth movement and a nod to Maccabees Jewish history.

He provided care mainly in the cities and modeled himself on a German system, signing cooperation agreements with cleaning and doctors. Today it is the second largest kupa in Israel and has 2.3 million members.

Prof. Schwarz has no doubt that Israelis enjoy a strong public health care system that provides services across the country.

“We have a network of clinics that provide basic medical care everywhere. In the United States, people sometimes have to travel hours to see their doctor. We have a clinic in every community,” she says.

“It all came with the need for staff during Ottoman rule, a doctor and a nurse to be within reach so that they did not have to travel by card for hours before receiving medical care.”

But it is not only the presence of health clinics in all parts of the country that has contributed to a successful inoculation campaign.

Pfizer was inspired to give vaccines to Israel because of the computer system of the four funds that is now being studied by many countries.

“The money can go to each patient’s medical information,” said Dr. Shvarts says.

“They can contact patients promptly to place an order to receive the vaccine. This type of computer system does not exist in many other countries, including the United States, and is critical to the successful distribution of supply work of this size. “

“When we look back at history, we see the outbreak of an infectious disease every hundred years or so,” Shvarts says.

“But we also see that humanity has been there and will be affected on this journey as well.”

On Sunday, Israel vaccinated its one million citizens – a resident of the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm – and thanks to the vision of these Zionist pioneers, the entire country will move from rescue to overcoming .