Utilization of healthcare services by groups in the Israeli population as a measurement reflecting equity in the healthcare system

The Israeli health care system bases itself on the principles of justice, equality, and social solidarity. In 1994 a Health Insurance Act was passed, based upon these principles, which helped to reduce the differences between Israeli population groups. People from lower socio-economic status suffer from more illnesses and have shorter life spans than their more fortunate countrymen. These differences in well-being, as well as being unnecessary and avoidable, are also unfair and unjust - and define the inequities in our health care system. Therefore, the goal of the health care system should be to reduce or eliminate these disparities, especially when they are avoidable and unjust. A study by Orna Apel Brown describes the results of a health care survey among new immigrants to Israel from the former U.S.S.R. She shows that there has been an increase in their utilization of healthcare services, excluding preventive measures such as mammography, along with a reduction in the differences in their self perception of health care status and well-being - now placing them on the same par as their fellow Israeli-born citizens. The results, although encouraging, stress the importance of the health care system's need to direct its efforts to decreasing the disparity and making the system more equitable to the underprivileged populations in Israel.